An Overview Of Parliament

The general public has been called upon to submit memoranda on the Intestate Succession Bill which is currently before Parliament.

The Law, when enacted, will regulate the rights of spouses in accordance with article 22 of the 1992 Constitution which requires spouses to have equal access to property jointly acquired during marriage and for such property to be equitably distributed between the spouses upon dissolution of the marriage.

It is also expected to help remove anomalies relating to intestate succession in the country's laws and provide a uniform intestate succession law that would be applied throughout Ghana, irrespective of the inheritance system of the intestate and the type of marriage contracted.

Addressing the media at Parliament House in Accra, yesterday, the Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Hon. Emmanuel Kwasi Bandua, said the decision to invite views and suggestions from individuals on the bill was borne out of the need to create an opportunity for informed inputs into the legislative process that would lead to an enactment of an Intestate succession Law in Ghana.

Hon. Bandua noted that a time limit of 10 working days starting on Thursday, June 28, has been given to send suggestions.
He said, considering the nature of the bill, there was the need to tread cautiously in order to harmonize the system of inherentance associated with the family systems in the country.

Minority leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonso, in a remark, pointed out that the decision was intended to allow for a one week fallow period during which the public would be allowed to make inputs into the bill before passage.

He noted that the law, when enacted, would adequately cater for all the discrepancies and limitations associated with PNDC Law 111 that deals with intestate succession in the country.

Source: ISD (Gilbert Ankrah &Richie Osei)

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