Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, or his representative is likely to appear before Parliament this week to answer some questions regarding the voter registration exercise and the entire preparation being made towards the December general elections. Although this assignment was supposed to have taken place during the First Meeting of Parliament which ended on March 19, 2008, it was delayed due to the heavy workload of the House. Armed with this knowledge, Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Member of Parliament (MP) for New Juaben North, on Thursday asked the leadership of the House to tell members when the Electoral Commission’s Chairman would be coming to brief the House on the registration exercise as well as the general election, as both were important national assignments aimed at consolidating the country’s democracy. In response, the Deputy Minority Leader, Edward Doe-Adjaho, said the decision of the leadership at its latest meeting was that the EC Chairman would come and brief the House on its preparedness to hold the forthcoming elections. Hon. Doe-Adjaho, cognizant of the EC’s autonomy, said under certain circumstances such as the one in question, the law-making body could invite the Chairman or his representative to the House. The Deputy Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, on the other hand, was not sure if the EC could be invited to the House this week, saying the EC Chairman would, in any case, “come to brief us in the shortest possible time.” Papa Owusu Ankomah, MP for Sekondi, who did not like the Deputy Minority Leader’s nebulous time span, asked him to be more specific since “as MPs, we are interested in the process as it may affect the work of the House”. He therefore suggested that every effort be made to bring the EC Chairman to the House for briefing. In another development, the First Deputy Speaker, Freddie Blay, who chaired proceedings, appealed to caucuses to consider the experience of some parliamentarians while making their choices at the primaries. He hoped that all experienced and knowledgeable members of the House would be re-elected by their constituents for the “House’s memory to be preserved.” Obviously shaken by the disturbing trend of some parliamentarians losing their primaries recently, a number of MPs were apt to contribute to Hon. Blay’s statement. The MP for Asawase, Mubarak Muntaka, was of the view that Blay’s advice came too late as some experienced members of the House had already lost at the primaries. He said it was unfortunate that some very experienced colleagues were voted out by their delegates at the constituency level, and deplored the tendency of some delegates asking sitting MPs to voluntarily step down as they had been in the House for two or three terms. Hon. Muntaka contended that he met a US congressman, who had been the representative of his people for 38 years and had been elected for 19 times. Such a personality, he said, could be a great source of knowledge on parliamentary practice all the time. Isaac Asiamah of Atwima Mponua called for a review of the current system under which both men and women politicians were allowed to contest on equal footing, and advocated a proportional representation system so that the House would not lose its few female members. Hon. Gershon Gbediame of Nkwanta South suggested that sitting District Chief Executives (DCEs) be prevented from contesting elections outright, be it against members of their party or not. He argued that since the ruling New Patriotic Party’s constitution mandates DCEs to step down if they want to contest for parliamentary seats on the ticket of the party, the same law should be applied to DCEs while contesting against other party members. That, he said, was necessary to bring some fairness into the system as the DCEs usually used their control over resources in the district to their electoral advantage. Source: Daily Guide