Speaker wild over Election Bill

The speaker of parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho, has expressed worry over delay in considering the report of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament when the leaders of government business in the House side-stepped its consideration yesterday as advertised in the Order Paper.

He has, therefore, charged the leadership of the majority and the minority to ensure that the House debates the report after the second reading of the bill so that the nation would know its fate in time, in view of the fact that there could be dissenting views emanating from its consideration.

He expressed the worry yesterday after prompting the deputy majority leader, Alfred Agbesi – who was in-charge of government business for the day – about the urgent need to consider the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which had been advertised in the Order Paper for second reading and the subsequent debate on the report mentioned above.

“Hon members, this bill is very important because there are consequences flowing from whatever decision this House will take with regard to the motion; and the earlier the decision by the House, the better for everybody, the better for all of us, the better for the political parties and the better for the Electoral Commission,” the speaker said.

Mr Alfred Agbesi told the speaker that even though the motion had been advertised, it could not be taken because there were some issues to be resolved in the report before the House could take the motion.

He explained that the leader of the House, Alban Bagbin, who was supposed to be around for the issues to be resolved, was not present.

On his part, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu told the speaker that he was to have met the majority leader over the matter so that the issues could be resolved, but he had the information earlier that the majority leader was attending cabinet meeting so he would endeavour to meet him by the close of the day so that the issues could be resolved for the motion on the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to be taken today.