If Mrs. Jean Mensa refuses to appear before the House as ordered by Speaker of the House Alban Bagbin last week, she will be brought before the Parliament’s Privileges Committee.
At the insistence of the Minority Caucus, who claim they are opposed to the Constitutional Instrument (CI) currently before the House that seeks to make the Ghana Card the only document for voter registration, Mr. Bagbin requested Mrs. Mensa’s presence.
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The NDC MPs claimed that because the EC Chairperson refused to appear in the House to respond to questions about the CI, she does not respect the Parliament.
The claim has been refuted by the EC of Ghana.
The Chairperson had to be represented in Parliament by her two deputies because, according to the Commission, she had accepted an invitation to participate in an election observation mission in Nigeria.
The statement added that “For the attention of the General Public, the EC received a letter from Parliament on Wednesday 22nd February 2023 inviting the Commission to brief the leadership of the House on the draft Cl on the registration of voters on Thursday 23rd February 2024”.
However, a ranking member of the Interior and Defense Committee of Parliament, Mr. James Agalga, indicated that the action of Mrs. Mensa is contemptuous in response to the news that the EC Chairperson is not within the jurisdiction and may not be able to appear before the House.
“We have a Chairperson of the Electoral Commission and we are talking about very serious matters affecting the integrity of the compilation of the voters register that is very crucial. And so for the head of that body not to turn up before Parliament without first all to giving us a reasonable excuse as to why she wouldn’t attend, raises serious questions. The counterpart of the EC, in this case, the NIA was represented by its boss so why do you think that we should tolerate the EC?
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“And we are saying that Jean Mensa has been very consistent in not turning up or responding to invitations from the House. She is the person who bears ultimate responsibility and so we require her personal attendance before the House so that whatever assurances are given will come from her own mouth,” he said.
When asked what might happen if the EC Boss doesn’t show up, Mr. Agalga told Blessed Sogah, host of JoyNews’ The Pulse, “You cannot treat Parliament like that. If you will, Parliament is the embodiment of the people’s representatives and the heart of our democratic experiment.
“I have indicated to you that her continuous absence is contemptuous. First of all, the assurance has been given that she would appear. If she doesn’t, seriously speaking, we will escalate our actions to include the referral of Jean Mensa to the Privileges Committee to be dealt with for contempt of Parliament.”
