The Member of Parliament for Suame, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has reiterated his advocacy for political parties to desist from what he thinks is the plucking of experienced lawmakers from the House.
The seventh term MP said the practice of parliamentary primaries robs the House of experienced hands and that the eighth parliament which took off today suffered that fate during the parliamentary primaries of the governing New Patriotic Party and the opposition National Democratic Congress ahead of the 2020 elections.
As many as 50 lawmakers, including experienced ones in legislation like Wa West MP, Joseph Yieleh Chireh; Frederick Opare-Ansah, Suhum; Ben Abdallah Banda, Offinso South and Shaibu Mahama, Daboya-Mankarigu, lost their seats in their respective primaries.
This phenomenon, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu believed left parliament weaker, hence the need for the political parties to take a second look at their respective constitutions.
At a joint press conference with his opposite colleague, Haruna Iddrisu, in Parliament yesterday, to take stock of the Seventh Parliament, the Suame MP said the leadership of the eighth parliament would have to intervene to stop the trend.
“Going forward, the leadership of this parliament should be appealing to the various political parties to do serious introspection into the various parties’ constitution to prevent this constant peeling off of experienced Members of Parliament.
“This is not helping the course of parliament and I want to believe that we are going to be together in this,” he said.
Media houses, he said, must also allow their reporters to stay as parliamentary reporters and specialise in parliamentary reporting.
“Elsewhere, journalists also do specialisation such that after two or three terms, when you talk on matters, you should be talking on matters from the position of authority.”
Citing the Watergate scandal, championed by Washington Post’s Bob Woodward which led to the resignation of then US President, Richard Nixon, in 1974, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said journalists must allow parliament walk through them rather than them walking through the House.
The Minority Leader and MP for Tamale South, on his part underscored the need for collaboration between the two sides of the House for a smooth legislature for the next four years.
Constituted in the wee hours of today, both parties boast of 137 seats each, in the 275 member House with one independent candidate.
“Ghana’s parliament is only the better by the outcome of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections. The election produced an inevitable outcome of no majority in parliament.
“[This means that] the Ghanaian people are not happy with the polarisation, the divisiveness, and the excessive partisanship in the country. The Ghanaian people want to see the opportunities of this country shared and shared to every Ghanaian irrespective of his or her political colour,” Mr Iddrisu said.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
