Parliaments adjourns for Christmas, urges EC to fix challenges of electoral processes

Parliament on Friday adjourned sittings for the Christmas festivities, with leadership urging the Electoral Commission (EC) to ensure that challenges in the country’s electoral processes were eliminated to safeguard the integrity of future polls.

The House also stressed on the need for consensus to sustain the peace and stability of Ghana after the 2012 elections.

Mr Cletus Avoka, Majority Leader, commended the EC for the success of the 2012 elections but asked the commission to take note of the challenges that occurred during the process and improve its performance in future.

He commended members for their efforts for a fruitful session and urged them to use the yuletide to foster peace and harmony in the nation.

Minority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu also called on the EC to learn from the hitches that occurred during the election and design measures to stem such occurrences.

He asked Ghanaians to use the festive occasion to pray for greater endowment of knowledge and wisdom in the governance of the country “as the nation is not yet out of the woods”.

Justice Joyce Adeline Bamford Addo, Speaker of Parliament, exhorted Ghanaians to make their actions and utterances reflect peace, calling on all to use the season to reach out to one another and “recommit ourselves to the wellbeing of our people”.

Sitting is expected to resume on January 3, 2013, to continue unfinished business of government and convene on January 6, 2013 for dissolution of the Fifth Parliament of the Fourth Republic, before new members are sworn in for the Sixth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

Before Parliament rose, 10 loan agreements for several social and infrastructural interventions were laid for consideration.

It also approved other loan agreements and passed the Health Professionals Regulatory Bill, 2011.

President John Dramani Mahama is expected to deliver a State of the Nation Address to Parliament on Friday, January 4, 2013 in accordance with Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution.

A luncheon would then be held after the address to honour all members of the Fifth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.