The Electoral
Commission (EC) is waiting for a formal communication from Parliament to
commence the legal processes towards granting the president’s request to
suspend the December 17, 2019 referendum.
It will not run the referendum alongside the
district level elections slated for December 17 but will continue to educate,
sensitise and create awareness for the electorate on the new development.
Earlier, the EC announced that the referendum to
vote on the proposed amendment to allow political parties to participate in the
district level elections will be held together with the Assembly and Unit
Committee elections.
Currently, Article 55(3) of the 1992
Constitution bars political parties from participating in district level elections
and the provision can only be amended through a referendum where at least 40
per cent of persons entitled to vote, cast their ballots at the referendum and
at least 75 per cent of the votes should be in favour of passing the bill.
Walking through the processes of withdrawing the
bill, Oduro Osae, the Technical Advisor at the Ministry of Local Government and
Rural Development, said the constitution permitted a bill to be withdrawn.
“As it stands now, the Ministry of Local
Government and Rural Development will formally communicate to the Attorney
General to withdraw the bill and once that is done the Attorney General will
inform the Speaker of Parliament and with permission the bill will be withdrawn.
“Parliament will then inform the EC that the
bill has been withdrawn, it cannot organise the referendum, the EC will then
take steps to extract the Constitutional Instrument 120 on the referendum and
that ends the issue,” Dr Osae noted.
Sharing his thoughts on the development, he
indicated that “the nation has lost a glorious opportunity to improve the
governance system, reduce the powers of the Executive Arm of Government, and
commence the implementation of the Constitution Review Commission as well as fully
democratise the local government system.”
Opinions were divided among stakeholders
including religious bodies, unions and civil society organisations about the
referendum and that led to the president calling it off since he indicated
there was lack of broad national consensus on the issue hence the decision to
suspend it. -gna.org
