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The Minority in Parliament has raised concerns over the unavailability of copies of papers in a key piece of legislation laid before the house by government related to the conduct of this year’s election.
These legal instruments are the Public Election Regulation 2016 and the Representation of the people (Parliamentary Constituencies) Instrument 2016.
The regulations are meant to guide the conduct of the elections if passed by the House.
Though the Minority in parliament has made known their concerns over the missing papers being laid, the document has still been laid and referred to the Subsidiary Legislation Committee for consideration.
Speaking to Citi News’ Duke Mensah Opoku after proceedings in the House on Friday, the MP for Akuapem North and the acting leader of the minority during the day’s sitting, W.O Boafo, said the concerns were raised because they did not want to begin the process of dealing with the new legislation without knowing its content.
Mr. Boafo explained that time was needed for the both sides of Parliament to scrutinize the content of the papers and prevent them from rushing through the process.
“There is the need for us to have them in time for study and if we have any comments, we sent them to the committee before it comes to the house because it is not like the bill that will go to the consideration state… we want the time to scrutinize those two bill and make sure that, with regards to the people’s Representation Parliamentary Elections Regulations, we must make sure every bit of our electoral areas are include in the schedule describing the constituencies.”
Minority’s’ concerns misplaced
But the Deputy Majority Leader , Alfred Agbesi, has said that the concerns of the Minority are misplaced.
“They want the assurance that copies are available or the papers are ready and I gave my assurance that the papers are available, copies are available and they are ready to be laid,” he stated to Citi News.
“It is after laying when the Speaker gives the direction that they can say that they have not been given. But you don’t raise that concern when the papers are about to be laid… The order says when sufficient copies are available then Speaker will allow it to be laid,” he explained.
According to Mr. Agbesi, when sufficient copies have been made available to the clerk in Parliament, it can then be laid for scrutiny.
“Once the clerk at table as given indication that the papers, sufficient copies have been made available to the clerk at table then whoever, the minister or the majority leader for that matter can lay it and that is exactly what happened this morning. Their concerns are misplaced.”
Source: citifmonline.com
