Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica),a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) has suggested to constituents to punish their Members of Parliament (MPs) who absent themselves from Parliament without permission from leadership of the House by voting them out.
It explained that it would curb the rampant absenteeism of MPs in the Chamber including the dormant MPs at the polls.
The organisation noted that MPs were accountable to their constituents who they represented in Parliament and could decide on them based on their performance and the effective and efficient mode of cracking the whip on them was for their constituents to punish them at the polls.
Samuel Obeng, the Executive Director of PNAfrica, who made the suggestion, said it would serve as deterrent for first time and continuous MPs to sit up to represent their constituents in a more profound manner than absenting themselves without permission.
“When their constituents have seen the record of the attendances, they will be able to tell their MPs they did not send them to the House to absent themselves but stay through parliamentary proceedings for the number of days and hours stipulated by the Standing Orders of the House and not to take them (constituents) for granted.
“When the record shows they often stay for less than thirty minutes without permission then we punish them at the polls by voting them out of Parliament to serve as deterrent for first time MPs and continuous ones so as to help check their seriousness or otherwise as the peoples representatives in the House,” Mr Obeng pointed out.
He, however, indicated that attendance of the Eighth Parliament had been better because of its nature as a hung Parliament adding that “I think we have to be fair to this Parliament because attendance has been relatively better especially of its unique nature which can be full of surprises”.
According to Mr Obeng, the current Parliament was performing better than previous Parliaments but bemoaned the situation some MPs had been accused of smuggling their names into the attendance sheets even when they did not show up for parliamentary proceedings and raised concern about when the House was forced to adjourn sitting when Murtala Mohammed, the MP for Tamale Central in the Northern Region, raised the issue of lack of quorum when only 42 MPs were present. –starrfm.com.gh
