Executive Director for Africa Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), Dr. Rashid Dramani has advised Members of Parliament (MPs) to work together before Parliament resumes proceedings next year.
Speaking on the E-levy voting which has been scheduled for 2022, he stated that if the law makers are able to work together during the period before Parliament resumes, they may reach an agreement that will be beneficial to the country’s development.
Dr. Dramani indicated that during the time that the E-levy was tabled before Parliament, there had not been any proper dialogue or consensus, hence resulting to the brawls in Parliament. He was, however, positive that with the break, the two sides can work things out before 2022.
“I just hope that the respite that this adjournment is going to give, they, parliamentarians, will take advantage of it and do a lot of work behind the scenes so that when they come back, hopefully the tensions would have died down completely then we can reset the relationship. Hopefully they can continue to work together to advance the agenda of this country.”
Dr. Rashid Dramani
Majority and minority have taken entrenched positions
Commenting on the Parliamentary procedure over the past weeks, Dr. Rashid Dramani stated that what the nation has witnessed since the beginning of the budget process indicates a situation where the two sides of the house have taken very entrenched positions. He posited that the nation has seen at play what he will describe as a zero sum approach to this important national issue.
“We haven’t seen a lot of win-win attitude. Both sides were very firm on their positions particularly on the most important issue in the budget which is the E-levy. We hear the minority saying zero and nothing more than that. We hear the majority say its 1.75 and nothing more than that”.
Dr. Rashid Dramani
Per the position of both sides of the House, the Executive Director averred that one would have thought that with all the discussions that have taken place, the negotiations would have seen both sides move a little bit “so that at least they can converge in the middle”. However, he didn’t see any consensus being reached during the sittings.
“I don’t know where to apportion any blame if there is any blame at all. Whatever it is, at the end of the day, the two sides carry that burden of the fact that we have not been able to see the way clearly out of the resultant unsightly scenes that we saw”.
Dr. Rashid Dramani
Dr. Dramani related the happenings in Parliament partly to the absence of the Speaker of Parliament. He stated that the Speaker was magnanimous in his approach because, if he read the mood of the nation and realized that “this is not the time to go and start undoing some of these things, that wouldn’t have created more tension in the county”.
Ghana’s Parliament has adjourned sitting till its resumption in 2022 to allow the Minister of Finance engage in broader consultations with stakeholders on the controversial e-levy which has caused a lot chaos in Parliament.
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