EC chair attracts the wrath of MPs

Some Members of Parliament have expressed disappointment and anger at Mrs Jean Mensa, Chair, Electoral Commission, for her inability to appear before the house on Thursday

The day had run into the afternoon in Parliament House, in Accra, and the House had come back from suspended sitting, in anticipation of the arrival of Electoral Commission Chair Jean Adukwei Mensa for an update on the December 7, 2020 general elections.

Speaker Prof Aaron Michael Oquaye had gavelled the House to a suspension to make for more time for the EC Chair to arrive, but the plenary came back to meet no sign of her presence.

Meanwhile, the House is left with two days to adjourn on November 7, 2020, for Members of Parliament who had won their primaries, to go to their constituencies to engage in the last leg of campaigning for their mother parties or for themselves to be re-elected.

The EC would update the House on Thursday, November 5, 2020, Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, had assured MPs the previous day.

But they came back from the suspension of the House, and the EC Chair had not shown face.

Worried, the House became; and irked the Leadership of the House became because the legislators felt Dr Mensa was showing what it called “incessant display of disrespect” to the House.

Angry Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, the Minority Chief Whip and MP for Asawase Constituency, wanted to know why the EC Boss was showing such attitude to the House.

He said that several invitations had been extended to the EC Chair but she had declined all.

“We’re allowing her to run over us; that’s not fair. We need to be told where she is. She cannot refuse to appear before us,… she must be summoned,” the Minority Chief Whip said, adding, “she has consistently avoided this house.

“It’s not fair that we will allow this to continue, Mr Chair, she has to be summoned to be here.”

Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu prayed the Speaker to cite the EC Chair for contempt of Parliament for not honouring the invitation to appear before the House as scheduled on Thursday.

“I should express my profound disappointment in the inability of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission or any of her deputies or any other member or management of our electoral process from not participating in this exercise that we are duly notified that she will be here. She must give reasons to Mr. Speaker why she should not be cited for contempt,” Mr Iddrisu said.

First Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei Owusu, presiding, asked for calm.

Meanwhile, a source close to the Leadership has told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the EC had accepted to update the House on Saturday, November 7, 2020 on the last leg of preparations for the 2020 elections.

“They are now ready to come to Parliament to update legislators on preparations towards the elections on Saturday,” the source said, adding that the invitation rather got to the respondent late.