The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Inusah Fuseini, has insisted that President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo’s decision to suspend the December 17th referendum makes him a dictator and a tyrant.
According to him, what the President did was to control and direct affairs of the Electoral Commission and to him, that is unconstitutional.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Monday, Mr. Fuseini explained that the decision to amend Article 55(3) lies in the power of the people of Ghana and not the President.
He further noted that the Minority MPs are monitoring the development and will find possible ways of dealing with the matter.
The President on Sunday, December 1, 2019, cancelled the December, 17th Referendum due to what he called a lack of durable consensus on the matter.
He also directed the Local Government Minister to withdraw from Parliament the Article 243 (1) Bill which meant to amend the Constitution to allow Ghanaians to vote for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives which had subsequently been done.
However, the Minority in Parliament and other legal practitioners have accused the president of usurping the role of the Electoral Commission.
Private legal practitioner and former Member of Parliament for the Zebilla Constituency, John Ndebugri, had accused President Nana Akufo-Addo of acting unconstitutionally when he cancelled the December 17 referendum.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Ndebugri demanded to know the constitutional provision on which the President took the action.
Civil Society Group, OneGhana Movement, in a statement, also expressed disappointment at the president for moving to withdraw the bill aimed at allowing Ghanaians to elect their own MMDCEs.
Though it had campaigned against the possible amendment to Article 55 (3), the group said it had never been against the election of MMDCEs.
It thus called for the government to rescind the decision to withdraw the amendment Bill for Article 243 (1).
The Chamber for Local Governance (ChaLoG) also called on the President to rescind its decision.
In a separate statement, ChaLoG, also expressed disappointment and questioned if the Akufo-Addo administration was committed to pursuing the election of MMDCEs as it had promised in its 2016 election manifesto.
Source:Fiilafmonline/CitiNews
