AG withdraws Bills that sought to allow partisan election of MMDCEs and Assembly Members from Parliament
The government has formally withdrawn the Bills that sought to amend Articles 55(3), an entrenched provision in the 1992 constitution and 243(1).
The two Bills were seeking to allow the participation of political parties in local level elections by being able to sponsor candidates and to also make the election of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) possible by taking away the powers of the President to appoint them.
It also meant that by allowing partisan participation in local level elections Assembly Members and Unit Committee Members could have also been elected on multi-partisan basis.
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Whilst Article 55(3) talks about political parties not being allowed to participate in local level elections by sponsoring candidates, Article 243(1) talks about the powers of the President to appoint MMDCEs.
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Ms Gloria Akuffo on Monday (December 2, 2019) withdrew the two Bills and the House approved it.
They are Constitution Amendment Bill 2018 to amend Article 55(3) and Constitution Amendment Bill 2018 to amend Article 243(1) which were laid before Parliament on May 28, 2019, and February 20, 2019, respectively.
The move to amend Article 243(1) was to take away the powers of the President to appoint MMDCEs and make it possible for them to have been elected by universal adult suffrage.
In addition, an amendment of Article 55(3) which was an entrenched provision in the 1992 and required a referendum to do so, was also to allow political party participation in local level elections by sponsoring candidates.
The AG appeared before Parliament on Monday afternoon with the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alima Mahama to withdraw the Bills.
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She prayed the House to give her leave to withdraw the Bills and First Deputy Speaker, Mr Joe Osei Owusu, who was sitting as Speaker granted it.
This followed President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's announcement on Sunday that he was withdrawing from the move based on a lack of a broad national consensus.
But addressing a press conference after the formal withdrawal, the Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr Haruna Iddrisu said the withdrawal was "unconstitutional" and accused President Akufo-Addo of "lynching" the 1992 constitution.
"If President Nana Addo Dankwa had consulted me, Haruna Iddrisu as Minority Leader, he certainly would not have come to Parliament only with an amendment to Article 243(1) of the constitution. That is inadequate, that is insufficient, that is not exhaustive enough and it is only in the course of that debate that we drew attention to the fact that, if you are seeking an amendment and ... we can have a partisan district assembly system and we can have a non-partisan district assembly system and you can still have elections conducted within a non-partisan district assembly system."
Mr Iddrisu added:
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"Our attention was drawn to the President that Article 243(1) which was the only one he [initially] introduced in Parliament - [There shall be a district chief executive for every district which shall be appointed by the President] - so fine, he has introduced it, he's done well but what he forgot to do was that he was not amending Article 243(3), so the removal [of a DCE], who removes, the electorate will elect and the president can fire.
And if you go to 248, and to be fair to the Parliamentary Committee on Consitutional, they have captured that in their report, it was also my view that Article 248 comprehensively should have been amended and it reads - a candidate seeking election to a district assembly or any lower local government committee, shall present himself to the electorate as an individual and will not use any symbol associated with any political party, so if he was sincere and religious to partisan participation, how come that he introduced Article 243(1) without touching on 248 which is gemaine to political party participation in a partisan district assembly elections.
Let any of you, walk the corridor of the Ministry of Local Government and the Attorney General and show me copies of any genuine intention by the President to get political parties interested because this is at the heart...so there is lack of candour and lack of sincerity. It is true that subsequent to the debate on Article 243(1), there was engagement and consultation to build national consensus".
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Majority's position
At a joint press briefing addressed by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Ms Gloria Akuffo, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alima Mahama and the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, they argued that the President did nothing unconstitutional by withdrawing the Bills.
The Majority Leader, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the Electoral Commission will immediately be notified to abort the process for the December 17 referendum.
"Now that the Bill has been withdrawn, and it is on account of what is happening in Parliament, as part of the process of the passage of the Legislation that this matter is before the EC..., Parliament will inform the EC that the Minister has done this and the Electoral Commission will advice itself as soon as practicable," Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said.
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Writer's email: enoch.frimpong@graphic.com.gh