By Edzorna Francis Mensah
The Minority in Parliament, led by Dr. Cassel Ato Forson, has successfully stopped the Majority from adding the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2023, to the business statement for the second week ending Friday, February 17, 2023.
The Business Statement presented by the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexandra Markin Afenyo, on February 10, 2023, has the regulation as one of the papers to be laid within a week under review, but the Minority Leadership kicked against it and accused the Majority side of smuggling the said item into a business statement which has never been discussed at the Business Committee Meeting.
The majority attempted to explain why it was added, but the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu, caused it to be removed before the house adopted the report for the week.
At a news conference, the Minority Leader explained that the Electoral Commission needs no new CI to conduct the upcoming voter registration exercise, as he told the EC to use the existing CI 91 and 126.
He said, “Clearly, they have an agenda, and that agenda will be resisted with all the forces as the Minority Caucus of this Parliament, and let them be aware that we will stand for our democracy.”
According to him, Ghana’s Democracy is currently fragile, and he used the opportunity to urge the NPP to be careful in order not to throw it away.
Dr. Ato, however, mentioned that the Minority is ready to engage them to arrive at a consensus on the matter, but they should not start by smuggling or trying to bring things that have not been approved at the Business Committee Meeting.
He said, “In fact, what we saw in the business statement is fake because the original one excluded the CI, which is regrettable.”
But the Deputy Majority Leader at the press briefing noted that not all items contained in the business statement will be on the order paper, and not all items on the order paper will be taken at the plenary during public business.
He, however, called for calm and added that they are prepared to engage the Minority moving forward.
“It is our collective interest to engage and do things in a manner that will help Ghanaians at large,” Mark Afenyo said.
