The Abuakwa South MP, Samuel Atta Akyea has said that it is too late to use the powers of Parliament to second-guess the work of the Electoral Commission.

His assertion comes in the wake of a private members’ motion filed by five NDC MPs to request Parliament to constitute a bi-partisan Committee to thoroughly review the processes and the procedures adopted by the Electoral Commission.

The sponsors of the Bill are; Asawase MP, Muntaka Mubarak, MP for Bolga East, Dr. Dominic Ayine, MP for Akatsi South, Bernard Ahiafor, Buem MP, Kofi Adams and MP for Salaga South, Zuweira Ibrahimah.

Speaking on Joy FM‘s Top Story on Tuesday, Mr. Atta Akyea stated that the Electoral Commission is not an extension of Parliament, therefore the House is not permitted by law to do so.

“The Parliament of Ghana is not supposed to second-guess the work of the Electoral Commission,” he said.

He explained that “if Parliament has serious input into the work of the EC, It will refer it to EC like an opinion, advice.”

As a result, he opposed the request for the bipartisan probe into the Electoral Commission.

The five Minority MPs also want the Committee to inquire whether the Electoral Commission introduced ballot papers that were pre-thumb-printed and bore the stamp of the Commission into the system.

Among other things, the Committee would be expected to establish the cause of the disturbances and electoral violence associated with the election.

The Committee is also to investigate the alleged procurement breaches in the Thales contract for the Biometric Verification Devices.

According to Mr. Atta Akyea, if the five Minority MPs believe that something untoward happened during the elections, they can seek redress at Court.

“To say let’s have a bipartisan committee, another extension to the cost of this land in a very funny guise to try and go into the affairs of the EC, is most unfortunate,” he stated.

In the same development, Project Lead at the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), Paul Nana Kwabena Aborampah Mensah disagreed with the Minority MPs’ demand for a bi-partisan committee to thoroughly review the processes and the procedures adopted by the Electoral Commission in the 2020 elections.

Mr. Aborampah Mensah believes that the Minority MPs’ requests in the motion have already been dealt with by the Supreme Court during the 2020 election petition.

He further asserted that Parliament has no power to investigate the Electoral Commission particularly when the NDC lacks evidence to support its allegations of unfair elections.

“We can never investigate Electoral Commission, I don’t know where that mandate is coming from. So when I read the motion, I told myself is this not the same points that were taken to court and the Supreme Court dealt with them.

“Are these not the same points that there were not even evidence to support? So what will be the credibility and essence of going through the same thing that the Supreme Court of the land has already adjudicated? … I don’t think Parliament has the power to investigate the Electoral Commission,” he told Evans Mensah.