Executive director for African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), Dr Rasheed Draman, has disclosed that the 8^th parliament is going to be characterised by a lot of confusion and gridlocks if care is not taken.

According to him, he has seen a similar occurrence in parliaments on the continent where they spent an entire legislative mandate trying to interpret happenings, a phenomenon similar to what is beginning to “creep” into Ghana’s parliament.

Speaking on the brawl which ensued between parliamentarians over the e-levy bill, Mr Draman revealed that the only “pathway” out of this is for the MPs to find a way to build very good working relationships.

“I have been monitoring this parliament since the second parliament and I have never seen anything like this. For me, I have said this since the beginning of the year that if we are not careful, this is how the 8^th parliament is going to be. The 8^th parliament is going to be characterised by a lot of confusion, a lot of gridlocks and if all of them are not careful, they’d go down in history as a parliament which we had very high expectations [and] in the end all we got was chaos and disappointments”.
Dr Rasheed Draman

First Deputy Speaker vacates Speaker’s seat

While taking votes on whether the E-levy bill should be taken under a certificate of urgency, the minority were irritated over an attempt by the presiding Speaker, Joe Osei-Owusu to leave the chair to cast his vote.

The Majority leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on the other hand provided justification on why Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu had to leave proceedings in the hands of the Second Deputy Speaker, Andrews Asiamah Amoako. He revealed that the First Deputy Speaker excused himself to take his medication and not to participate in the voting process as alleged by the Minority.

Commenting on this, the ACEPA boss revealed that the first deputy speaker, in his opinion, is looking at the rules in a different way.

Mr Draman expressed that he has never heard the Speaker presiding and at the same time being counted.

“When a couple of weeks ago he counted himself for quorum purposes, some of us argued that perhaps there was some [space] in that since he represented the people of Bekwai. I think yesterday’s position that he took was quite a bit of a stretch. That shouldn’t have been the case honestly because it was his ruling that was being challenged…”
Dr Rasheed Draman

Following this, Mr Draman intimated that both sides, particularly the majority side, must realize that they are the ones given the mandate to govern this country. Nonetheless, he noted that since they don’t have the numbers, they have to find a way to work with the minority.

Commenting on how best the situation can be handled, Mr Draman indicated that he reckons the leaders of both sides know what to do. They have to get to the table with a lot of sincerity because if consensus must be reached between the two sides, there has to be a lot of give and take.

Meanwhile, parliament will resume sitting today to decide whether the controversial e-levy Bill should be considered under a certificate of urgency or otherwise.