The Chairman of the Council of State appears to have irked the Majority in Parliament and Speaker of the House after seemingly siding with the Minority over a contentious correspondence.

The bone of contention here has to do with whether the Speaker has to lay in Parliament a document on amendments of some entrenched provisions before forwarding it to the Council of State or vice versa.

The Minority had accused Edward Doe Adjaho, Speaker of the House, of taking unilateral decisions on the Constitution Review Commission’s recommendations on the entrenched provisions.

According to them, the Attorney General had delivered a document containing the recommendations in the white paper and handed it over to the Speaker. But the Speaker, without recourse to the House, forwarded the document to the Council of State.

The Minority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu wrote to the Council stating his disagreement about the Speaker’s action.

The Council of State is now asking Edward Doe Adjaho to present the document to the legislative body for deliberation.

The Minority therefore feels vindicated by the action of the Council of State.

Minority ranking member on Legal and Parliamentary Committee, Joseph Osei-Owusu told Joy News the Chairman of the Council of State, Madam Cecilia Johnson in a letter to the Speaker copied to the Minority Leader, acknowledged “the position taken by the Minority Leader to be the correct interpretation of the constitution”.

The letter stated that the Council is “therefore returning the proposed amendment containing the bill to the Speaker to take it to Parliament”, he mentioned.

Mr Osei-Owusu commended the Council’s action as being “correct” and also “vindicates us”.

He is therefore asking Mr. Doe Adjaho to respect the Council’s directive and lay the bill before Parliament so that a consensus can be reached on the amendments proposed.

But the Majority Chief Whip, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak is contesting the decision of the Council.

He claimed the Chairman of the Council of State “acted alone” when she returned the document, and stressed “I am sorry for her”.

Because the Council’s chair acted based on the letter she received from the Minority Leader, Alhaji Muntaka questioned if she now takes advice from the Minority Leader.

“If she had to take advice, I wonder if he wanted to take advice from the Minority without necessarily even hearing from the Majority Leader or the Speaker”.

He disclosed that the Speaker has “responded appropriately” to the Council that the document is assumed to be with the Council, and insisted that he did nothing wrong referring the document to them.

The Speaker, he said, has therefore challenged the Council chair to seek interpretation of the constitution at the appropriate quarters, because “he thinks that per his own judgment, his understanding of the constitution, he acted right, and therefore has referred the document back to the Council of State, telling them that so far as he is concerned the document is before the Council of State”.