<<Print>>

Majority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mohammed, has accused the Minority in Parliament of deliberating opposing a move to change the general election date from December 7 to November 7.

Parliament on Thursday rejected the passage of the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2016.

After a vote on the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2016, 125 members voted ‘Yes’ in favour of the date change, while 95 voted ‘No’ to reject the date change.

45 MPs were however absent from the House.

A total of 184 ‘Yes’ votes were required to ensure that the November 7 date amendment is enforced.

Though the ballot was done secretly, Mr. Muntaka, who believes most MPs who voted ‘No’ were from the Minority side, requested that they offer explanations for their decision.

“We should ask the minority to tell us why they decided not to support the bill to change the election date,” he said.

Mr. Muntaka on Eyewitness News stated that, the NPP had on several occasions opposed moves to ensure that election is not held on November 7.

“We should be asking why they agreed in the early stages and now they are giving the excuse that the Electoral Commission is not ready… The Electoral Commission has proven beyond reasonable doubt that they can hold election on November 7.”

I envisaged a rejection

Mr. Muntaka also revealed that, he envisaged a rejection ahead of the secret balloting, saying “Let me say emphatically nothing went wrong on the side of the majority. If you ask the party and you ask my superiors, I sent message two weeks ago that we were not going to win and I knew it, but we decided that no we cannot continue talking and talking endlessly, we need to go ahead and get a vote and Ghanaians will be the best judges.”

Why some MPs were absent

Offering explanations as to why some MPs were absent and could therefore not cast their vote, Mr. Muntaka said: “some were sick, others had travelled and others had to attend to other critical issues.”