Charlotte Osei arrives in Parliament

Accra, July 26, GNA - The Chairperson of Electoral Commission, Mrs Charlotte Osei, has arrived in Parliament House at the invitation of Legislative body to answer some pertinent questions of national interest.

Before she arrived, Parliament was suspended for an hour in an apparent preparation to sit in the Committee of a whole.

Mrs Osei is expected to answer questions on the total amount of money that the EC collected from media representatives who covered the 2016 General Election, the replacement of lost and misplaced voter ID cards and how the monies have been utilised.

The media will sit in hear part of the deliberations.

Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo earlier today referred a petition against Mrs Osei, the Chief Justice.

A statement signed by Mr Eugene Arhin, the Director of Communications at the Presidency, said President Akufo-Addo received the petition whilst out of the country.

It said pursuant to Article 146(3) of the Constitution, which was invoked by the Petition, the President referred same to Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo for resolution in accordance with the dictates of that Article.

Article 146(3) states: "If the President receives a petition for the removal of Justice of a Superior Court other than the Chief Justice or for the removal of the Chairman of a Regional Tribunal, he shall refer the petition to the Chief Justice, who shall determine whether there is a prima facie case or not."

Subsequent clauses of Article 146 also enable the Chief Justice, where he or she decides that there is a prima facie case, to set up a committee consisting of three Justices of the Superior Courts or Chairmen of the Regional Tribunals or both, appointed by the Judicial Council.

In addition to these are two other persons who are not members of the Council of State, nor members of Parliament, nor lawyers, and who shall be appointed by the Chief Justice on the advice of the Council of State, to investigate the complaint and make its recommendations to the Chief Justice who shall forward it to the President.

The President initially received the Petition undated and unsigned, but subsequently, counsel, Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang, Esq., by a letter dated 20th July, 2017, wrote to the Office of the President setting out the names of the petitioners and the date of the Petition.

The Petition accuses Mrs Osei of taking decisions without recourse to the Commission and taking actions that compromised the independence and neutrality of the Commission, among other charges.

She has since denied any wrong doing and made counter allegations against two of her deputies.

She has also sued Mr Opoku Agyemang for defamation.

GNA