[ 2012-07-09 ]

MPs to lose immunity from arrest
Members of Parliament may no longer enjoy immunity
from arrest when the house is in session as
provided for in Article 117 of the 1992
Constitution.

“Civil or criminal process coming from any court
or place out of Parliament
shall not be served on, or executed in relation
to, the Speaker or a member
or the clerk to Parliament while he is on his way
to, attending at or
returning from, any proceedings of Parliament.”

But the government has accepted a recommendation
by the CRC that this provision be amended to allow
civil or criminal processes to be served on the
Speaker or MPs through the Clerk of Parliament
whilst the House is in session.

This is one of many recommendations accepted by
government in the proposals tabled by the
constitution review commission.

The white paper was officially made public at a
two-day workshop with the media, chiefs and people
from the three regions in the north over the
weekend.

Other recommendations accepted by the government
include one saying all public institutions should
be composed of at least 30 per cent of each
gender.

One critical recommendation is the independence of
the Bank of Ghana which is that the Governor
should have a mandatory 10-year non-renewable
tenure of office.

The government however rejected a recommendation
that the time period a suspect can be held without
charge be reduced from 48 hours to 24 hours.

About 90 percent of the recommendations were
accepted, but some participants at the two-day
workshop in the Northern Region mainly journalists
say issues government rejected were very important
to national development.

Source - Joy News

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