The governing New Patriotic Party(NPP) in the Upper East Region has called on the public to ignore claims by the NDC that ,government has interfered in the election of Council of State members.
The NDC in a press conference, accused government of “perpetuating fraud” in the upcoming elections by attempting to bend the law to favor their candidates.
But addressing the Media in Bolgatanga on the allegations, Upper East Regional Communications Director of the NPP ,Sanusi Issah described their claims as “baseless” and without legal proof of Constitutional breaches on the process so far .
Below is the full statement issued ;
NPP PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE 12TH FEBRUARY, 2021 ELECTION OF THE UPPER EAST REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE
TO THECOUNCIL OF STATE ELECTION
Good afternoon members of the media, ladies and gentlemen, we are grateful to have you here to cover this press conference. This press conference has been necessitated by a number of false claims spewed by the NDC Regional Secretary in the course of his press conference on Thursday the 4th February, 2021. It is our strongest believe that the falsity of the claims made by the NDC Regional Secretary may well have been found by you upon the appropriate research. Never the less, there may be some of you who might still be hoodwinked by the baseless claims made in the press conference. It is on the basis of this that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which has been acclaimed by common consent as the trailblazer for rule of law and good governance that we have called you here to set the records straight .
Members of the media, ladies and gentlemen, the ill fated press conference of the NDC addressed by its Regional Secretary can be supervised as follows:
(a) That the procedure for the nomination of two collegiate members from some Municipal /District Assemblies in the region has been sidelined.
(b) That the tenure of office of the Municipal/ District Chief Executives and the One-third government appointees in the respective
Assemblies have expired
(c) Alleged collusion between H.E. the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo -Addo and the Regional Director of the Electoral Commission to act contrary to law
1. Procedure for Nomination Not Followed
Members of the Press, Articles 89-92 make elaborate provisions for the Council of State which essentially is to counsel the President of the Republic in the performance of his functions. The Upper East Region, like the rest of the 15 other regions has an opportunity to elect one representative to the Council. As in all other elections, the Electoral Commission (EC) is enjoined by Article 51 of the Constitution to make rules and regulations for the conduct of this election.
The Constitution itself per Article 89 (2)(c) provides for the each Municipal/District Assembly to nominate two representatives to form the electoral college to elect the said representative. It is on the basis of this constitutional injunction that Election (Regional Representative on Council of State) Instrument, 1993, C.I. 1 was promulgated. The two representatives’ names and other details are then submitted to the EC for compilation to enable to college meet on a day and time for the election.
A communication from any of the Assemblies to the EC is of course proof of authority which can be acted upon as official. How the Assemblies do the nomination and the list sent to the Commission is a matter within the purview of the Assemblies. Do the Assemblies have to be in session before nomination of the two names can be submitted to the Electoral Commission? Can the nomination be done administratively? These are matters that are yet to come for interpretation by the appropriate quarters.
Suffice it to add that in the NDC’s press conference no specific rule or law was cited as having been breached by anybody.
From the presser, one cannot fail to notice the vain attempt to cast aspersions on the first gentleman of the land, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo -Addo by the NDC even though there was no pepper corn of evidence of any move by the President or any government official to interfere in this Council of State Election in the region. It is also curious to note that the NDC Secretary tried unsuccessfully again to portray that H.E the President was acting with the Regional Director of the EC to undermine the rule of law. Regrettably there was no evidence to buttress that assertion. This NDC presser was at best a propaganda mission which has gone forbiddingly terrible.
2. Disqualification of M/DCE’s and Appointed Assembly Members from the Electoral College
Good people of the media fraternity, one of the legally erroneous assertion made by the NDC through its press conference read by its Regional Secretary is that:
“all former Government appointees and M/DCE’s of the various assemblies seized to be recognized members of the assemblies once their tenure of office conforms and goes with that of the President of the Republic of Ghana that appointed them into office as members of the assemblies” (sic).
The word CEASED but not SEIZED is what we guess was intended. The above statement is not even supported by any law. That the NDC members do not read is a truism.
Had the Regional Secretary taken the pain to read sections 20 (4) of the Local Governance Act, 2016 Act 936, he would have noticed that unless and until one of the events occur in section 20 (3) of the Act 936, the M/DCE shall serve for 4 years which period has not elapsed. The relevant sections provides as follows for ease of reference. Section 20 (3) provides:
“The office of the District Chief Executive shall be vacant if
(a) A vote of no confidence supported by the votes of not less than two thirds of all the members of the District Assembly is passed against the District Chief Executive
(b) The District Chief Executive is removed from office by the
President or
(c) The District Chief Executive resigns or dies.”
Section 20(4) also provides
“A District Chief Executive shall hold office for four years but the District Chief Executive shall not hold office for more than two consecutive terms”
Clearly, the M/DCE are still at post and once their respective appointments have not been revoked by the President, they can and are eligible to form part of the Electoral College for the Council of State Election in the region.
The same applies to the Government Appointees. Section 5 (1) (d) of Act 936 make provision for the appointed members. Here again unless and until the President exercises his discretion to revoke their appointment, they remain members of the Assembly and can therefore take part as collegiate members in the region. See section 10 of the Local Governance (Amendment) Act, 2017, Act 940.
Members of the press, from the foregoing the position canvassed by the NDC in their presser is legally untenable as they are not grounded on any law of the land. We therefore invite you to disregard the unlawful position taken by the NDC.
Esteem members of the press, H.E. the President has an impeccable record on his adherence to the rule of law and good governance.
Indeed, everything in the life of H.E. the President during his time as private citizen, human rights lawyer, Member of Parliament, Minister of State, Presidential Candidate and for over 4 years the President of this Great Country, adherence to the rule of law has been his hall mark.
It therefore begs belief that the NDC would seek to draw the President’s name to any scheme which only exist in their fertile imagination that the President is undermining the rule of law. We call on you as stated early to disregard this claim of the NDC. There is no basis at all to support their claim.
Members of the press, ladies and gentlemen, we will recall that in December, 2019, efforts were made by the NPP government to amend Article 55 (3) of the Constitution which barred political parties from taking part in District Assembly or lower local government unit elections.
The purpose of the aborted referendum was to enable political parties sponsor candidates in those elections. The NDC was against it and the rest is history. The current state of the law is that all political parties are enjoined to respect the non-political nature of the Assemblies.
The question which arises here is why is the NDC concerned on this issue when the people whose rights have been allegedly infringed upon are not complaining? Is the NDC now the mouth piece of the Assemblies? By the conduct of the NDC in the press conference, they are trying to politicize the District as though members on the assemblies are in the majority and minority categories as pertains in the parliament of Ghana.
The NDC should not be allowed to in one breath allege an infringement of the law and in another breath they are breaching the laws of the land that forbids political partisanship in the District Assemblies. What double standard is this?
We welcome their call to resort to the court of law on this issue and as their party’s, General Secretary stated some years the back. Any fool can go to court.
We wish them well in this endeavour. By this press conference we do believe that the facts have been laid bear for all to know the truth. The NPP as always has nothing to hide and the processes so far in the matter of the collegiate to the Council of State Election is above board.
No amount of vituperations can undermine the transparent process thus far.
We do hope that the NDC will draw useful lessons from this presser so that in future they will learn to look before the leap. Thank you very much and God bless us all.
DATED AT BOLGATANGA THIS 8TH DAY OF FEBRUARY, 2021
ISSAH SANUSI
NPP REGIONAL COMM OFFICER 02075732841
Source:A1radionline.com|101.1MHZ|Ghana
