Since the beginning of the Fourth Republic in 1992, Ghana’s two main political parties: The New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have boycotted the Ghanaian Parliament a whopping 17 times.
Out of the 17 times of parliamentary walk-outs, the NDC tops with approximately 11, while the NPP has recorded six boycotts so far.
This tally comes up in the wake of the latest parliamentary boycott by the opposition NDC during last week’s State of the Nation’s Address (SONA), where they stormed out protecting myriads of issues, including the refusal of the Akufo Addo administration to pay up the Common Fund for Members of Parliament to be able to undertake development projects in their constituencies.
They also tagged the Akufo Addo administration as “totalitarian” that seeks to perpetuate itself in power indefinitely by manipulating the Electoral Commission.
Data on total boycotts shows that between 2010 and 2015, the NPP had walked out of Parliament six times, while the NDC has been doing this since 2003.
Prominent among this boycotts on the NDC side was in August 2003 when the then Minority Leader, Alban Bagbin, led his side to boycott the debate on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Bill stating that there were “fundamental flaws in the Bill”.
In February 2005, the Minority in Parliament staged a walk-out in protest of the motion to pass the Customs and Excise (Petroleum taxes and Petroleum related levies) Bill.
On the side of the
NPP, two of the major walk-outs was in 2010 when the then Minority NPP staged a
walk-out during the debate on the controversial STX Korean housing deal, after
a prolonged sitting. The deal
eventually collapsed due to questionable boardroom wrangling.
Again on November 15, 2013: The Majority in Parliament
approved a 2.5 per cent increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) which sparked a
boycott by the NPP which was then in opposition. The VAT adjustment saw it
climb from moving the then 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent.