Only 16 MPs Turn Up In Parliament, Minority Suggests Suspension Of The House

The Minority in Parliament today suggested that the House suspends sittings after only 16 out of the 275 MPs turned up for business today.

The absentee Legislators were busy in their various constituencies campaigning for re-election.

Seeing that Ghana’s Parliament is now a runaway Legislature, Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzi, suggested that the House which only recently returned from recess, be suspended to give ample room for MPs to campaign.

“We cannot be taking decisions when out of a House of 275 people only 16 of us are here. We are not doing our country any good. Mr Speaker, let us get the numbers, then members can debate the issues very well, and then we will go and get them approved,” Avedzi said.

The Deputy Minority Leader was speaking during the consideration of a USD 243 million facility for the procurement of standard gauge rolling stock.

According to him, the proper order of things is to have business commence only when there are enough MPs in the House. However, Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu disagreed.

 “We agreed on this and I am surprised that the Deputy Minority Leader is getting up just the following day after we made the appeal to say that the house cannot go on. I think we can go ahead because this is not contentious and it was anonymously adopted at the level of the committee so I don’t see what will hold us down,” Kyei Mensah Bonsu said.

Speaker, Rt. Hon. Prof. Aaron Mike Ocquaye, concurred with the Minority Leader.  “There were certain decisions taken yesterday with regards to enabling this house to go on and I can see some members nodding to that effect because they know what we agreed on, so let’s just make progress,” he said.

Parliament resumed sitting in May after going on recess. It is to use this last quarter of its time to consider 42 bills, according to a statement released by its Public Affairs department.

The Bills include the Judicial Service Bill, 2020, Creative Arts Bill, 2020, Council of State Bill, 2020 and the Wildlife Bill, 2020.

A total of 19 bills are already before various Committees for consideration, including Exemptions Bill, 2019 and the Anti-Money Laundering Bill, 2020.

Also, the Public Universities Bill, 2020, the Ghana Cocoa Board (Amendment) Bill, 2017, and the Petroleum Hub Development Corporation Bill 2020 are to go through a second reading.