Engage leadership of Parliament or forget new C.I – Speaker to EC

Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has vowed to stop the laying of a new constitutional instrument (CI) if the Electoral Commission fails to seek audience with the leadership of parliament. The commission has announced the new C.I which seeks to make the Ghana Card the only proof of nationality for its impending limited registration exercise which will soon be presented to parliament. The move has attracted stiff opposition from the NDC and some civil society groups. Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu during the presentation of the business statement called for both the NIA and the EC to be summoned over the development. Majority chief whip Frank Annor-Dompreh who presented the business statement assured bringing the two entities to parliament shouldn’t be an issue. Alban Bagbin however told the EC to engage not just the subsidiary legislation Committee of parliament as part of pre-laying formalities but the leadership of the House as well including his office. According to him, failure to do that will mean the death of the instrument. “…I have not been given any brief by the EC on any proposed instrument coming from them. And so I raised this some time ago, I’m yet to receive them to be briefed on them. Until that is done, they should forget about laying such Instruments in the House,” he said.