By Linus Aleke
Ghanaian MP, and former member of Ghanaian delegation to the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Hon. Fredrick Opare-Ansah, said, that ECOWAS Commission has a crucial role to play, if the idea of Adult Suffrage into the ECOWAS Parliament will come to fruition
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He noted that the Commission is in a better position to prepare the necessary framework that will lead to the actualization of the direct elections into ECOWAS Parliament as the Authority of Heads of States and Governments come and go and the Chair of Authority of Heads of States and Government who has one or two years tenure would not have enough time for this process to see the light of the day.
Hon. Opare-Ansah, who spoke in interview, noted that the decision could take longer than the tenure of a Chair of the Authority of Heads of States, stressing even if he does two terms, it will still take longer than that to achieve that goal.
To this end, he posited that the most permanent of institutions of ECOWAS to drive the process alongside the leadership of the Parliament is the Commission.
“That is where the process has to be driven from; I believe that if they do go through all the motions for preparing for such a thing, whoever becomes Chair of the Authority of Heads of States and Government would see reason in granting this particular thing,” he further explained.
On whether enhancing the powers of the legislature will not subject the commission to undue scrutiny, the former law maker, said,
they would have to be accountable.
“So, whatever you do it now or not, this audit will happen someday, someone can always commission an audit to be done to events of twenty years ago to look at what happen and so it’s an inevitable eventuality. It is better now so that it helps the institution and the entire community to go forward at a faster rate,” he concluded.
