President`s plea to boycotters:
Resume your duty as reps of the people
Atiku Iddrisu | Posted: Monday, February 20, 2006
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| President J.A Kufuor |
President John Agyekum Kufuor has called on the Minority in Parliament to review their boycott and return to parliament as representatives of their people and hold healthily debates on national issues.
Presidential Press Secretary Mr. Kwabena Agyepong who disclosed the president's appeal yesterday, said the President believes that the Minority has the right to raise issues, but the appropriate place of dialogue is Parliament, "and not on the streets".
Speaking to journalists at the twice-a-week Osu Castle media briefing, Mr. Agyepong said the President has once more reiterated what he said in his State of the Nation Address that all matters relating to the Representation of the People's (Amendment) Bill (ROPAB) should be put before parliament, which is the rightful place for debate on all laws.
He said the President was aware that it is normal that when Bills are brought before Parliament people would express divergent views and therefore appealed to members of the Minority to resume their duties and debate their concerns with their colleagues on the majority benches in parliament.
Mr. Agyepong said President Kufuor, during a meeting he held with the Christian Council of Ghana last Monday, took time to explain the rationale behind the legislation and its constitutional implications. He told them of the need to respect the Constitution, which makes Parliament the appropriate forum for dialogue and the fact that Parliament has the power to enact laws.
He said the President restated his position that the issue of ROPAB is more of a national character than a political one. He said President Kufuor was of the view that ROPAB is not a partisan issue out of which a group of people could arrogate to themselves the power to determine the voting rights of another group of Ghanaians.
"The constitution does not discriminate between a Ghanaian who stays here and the other one who is not here…It is history, and the time has come to initiate the process to ensure that every Ghanaian is allowed to exercise their franchise", he said.
Mr. Agyepong refuted allegations suggesting that the ROPAB is being promulgated to assist the NPP government win or rig the 2008 elections.
He said it is important to note that the NPP won three elections, "in the year 2000, first in 2000 and second in 2004", all without Diaspora votes. He said those who think passage of the Bill is a premise for the NPP to rig elections "should begin to think again".
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