Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah, a governance expert, has stated that it is wrong for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to direct the Majority Caucus in Parliament to abstain from the vote of censure against Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance.
“The directive smacks of intrusion by the leadership of the party because it is wrong to direct the Majority caucus to abstain from the vote of censure against the minister,” he noted.
According to him, he understands and read the paper himself and the letter from the NPP apparently directing the Majority Caucus not to support the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which was too much of an intrusion in the work of the legislature.
In a statement signed and issued by Justine Kodua Frimpong, General Secretary of NPP directed the Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Majority side of Parliament to stay away from a vote of censure moved by the Minority in Parliament against Mr Ofori-Atta.
It said Mr Ofori-Atta was leading the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) hence removing him may adversely impact the progress made thus far and rejected the move by the NDC Caucus in Parliament describing it as “ill-motivated” and “mischievous”.
Prof. Agyeman-Duah indicated that people should respect the line between political parties and their parliamentary caucus just as respecting the line between the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary because such lines were important theoretically in terms of respecting the balance of power and the checks and balances that should exist between the three arms of government.
“The issue should have remained an internal party matter without hitting the public domain, once the party wins power the Executive and the Legislature should be seated away from the party not that they do not continue to deal, they have to, but it should be private.
