Referendum Aborted: Akufo-Addo could face impeachment - Inusah Fuseini

Ranking Member on Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Inusah Fuseini, believes President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo could face impeachment elsewhere for his decision to suspend the December 17th referendum.

“In other jurisdictions, the president could have faced impeachment,” he said on NEAT FM’s morning show ‘Ghana Montie’.

He explained that, what the President did was to seek to control and direct affairs of the Electoral Commission – a phenomenon he described as “unconstitutional”.

According to him, any decision to amend Article 55(3) lies in the power of the people of Ghana and not the President, adding that the "Minority MPs are monitoring the development" and will find possible ways of dealing with the matter.

“There are many options and we are still studying the matter. At the appropriate time, we will settle on an option to deal with the President’s action.”

“The decision to amend Article 55(3) is a decision vested in the people of the country. For the purposes of the referendum, the people of this country, including the President, the opposition, the Members of Parliament and my friends at the trotro station who are registered voters have that power,” he explained.

Cancellation of December 17th Referendum

The President on Sunday, December 1, 2019, cancelled the December, 17th Referendum due to what he called a lack of durable consensus on the matter.

He also directed the Local Government Minister to withdraw from Parliament the Article 243 (1) Bill which meant to amend the Constitution to allow Ghanaians to vote for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives which had subsequently been done.