Due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has brought the World
into a crisis,the University of Ghana Students' Representative Council (SRC)
General Assembly had their first Virtual meeting on May 20,2020 to continue with the Affairs
of the SRC.
The Speaker Rt.Hon. Emmanuel Owusu Agyei Ampem who was the
Chairman of the House began the meeting at 8:43pm with 68 members present.
The Agendum for the Sitting were;
1. Freashers First Policy
2.Approval of the SRC Electoral Commissioners
3.Vetting Committee for SRC Executive Aspirants.
After the Honorable Members finished with the first Agenda,the
Speaker of the house asked Hon.Jimmy Adangbe who was the Chairman of the Electoral
Commission Vetting Panel to present the results by the panel and it states,
The committee would, therefore, put the names of the Electoral
Commissioners for approval and proceed with the other applicants (vetting Panel
Members)
Sharon Pinsung Dokorugu- Chairperson 87%
Ernest Mensah Amponsah- First deputy 83%
Gabriel Ahiamata- Second Deputy 77%
Emmanuel Kofi Adika 68%
The Speaker then proceeded to the Next agenda which was the
approval of the Electoral Commissioners.
Normally, Honorable Members Vote with either "Yes or
No" and the "Show of hands" by their orders.
For transparency sake,89% of the members suggested the voting
should be done on the platform with the normal order but the Speaker of the House insisted the
voting will be done with Google form which will be having all the security
measures and it would be handled and controlled by the Clerk of the house.
This brought misunderstanding in the house and many of the Honorable Members rose concerns,but the Speaker ignored and went ahead to drop the Google form link.
Reports from the Honorable Members states that, 10 seconds after
the link was dropped on the page,voting ended and none of them were able
to vote.
What can be the cause of this problem?
The Clerk then changed the Group setting to "only admins
can send message".
Ten minutes later(10),the setting was changed back and the Speaker
dropped a results from the Google form with No Votes having a higher percentage.
98% of the Official members reported,they couldn't vote as well.
He then asked for a motion to be moved to disapprove the EC
vetting results and immediately,he left the meeting and their official Whatsapp page without listening to any
of his Members.
The Clerk who the Speaker mentioned to be the moderator of the
Google voting issued a disclaimer after the results were dropped and it states,
I AM UNABLE TO RECORD THIS MEETING...MY OFFICE SHALL RELEASE A
STATEMENT SOON. IN THE WHILE I AM NO NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE THE GOOGLE FORMS
USED FOR THE VOTING WE MUST PROCEED IN INTEGRITY. MAYBE ITS HIGH TIME
SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER. I AM SORRY I LEAVE NOW, BUT BEAR WITH ME. I WOULD LOVE IF
THIS MEETING BROUGHT TO AN END PROCEDURALLY SOON. IF NOT I MAY EXIT WITH YOUR
KIND PERMISSION TO THE HOUSE
These were some few concerns from the Honorable Members;
*The clerk didn’t develop the system so he guaranteeing that
will be very difficult..Sincerely
*People on the page are not supporting it and you want the
speaker to proceed?
*Mr.Speaker Honorable members want to vote here..
* Mr. Speaker your refusal to allow us speak, will lead us to
stop obeying the rules. This house will now be chaotic. Let’s be guided.
*I want to help the house with a system of voting
*Ah but the form is no longer accepting responses...less than a 20 seconds after it was placed here.
*What game is this one too? Ah are you playing with us or
something?
* But Mr Speaker, this looks highly orchestrated and
predetermined. How's it possible such structures were put so swiftly in place
before this meeting.
*The house can't accept this.
*Mr Speaker, this looks so undemocratic.
Since this decision went against the constitution of the
Assembly and Democracy, a procedural motion was moved by Hon. Divine
Kwadzodeh and was supported by ten Honorable Members to get the deputy speaker and
the Clerk to continue with the business of the house. The House then proceeded
to conduct an open voting on the page with over 30 Yes votes and 0 No Vote representing a unanimous approval of the Electoral Commissioners.
Some pictorial evidence of the proceedings and the open voting
is attached.
The house also indicated that it will conduct an investigation on the Speaker Hon.Owusu Ampem and when guilty,removal of office could be an option.
They should dismiss the Speaker from the house.A Speaker must be unparticisan
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