Bagbin tackles Kan Dapaah over use of ‘near-hung’ to describe 8th Parliament

Commonwealth Parliamentary Association organizes a 3-day workshop

Kan Dapaah calls for consensus building in the 8th Parliament

Bagbin touts the unique nature of the 8th

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The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin has disagreed with National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah over his description of the current 8th Parliament as a near-hung parliament.

Albert Kan-Dapaah, taking his turn to address participants at this year’s Commonwealth Parliamentary Association workshop touch-based with Ghana’s parliamentary practices.

He described the current happenings in the 8th parliament which included the fisticuffs between MPs as one which constituted a “parliamentary crisis”.

The National Security Minister further labeled the 8th parliament as “a near-hung parliament”.

“It is worth noting that 2022 marks the 30th year of Ghana’s fourth Republican constitution. Yet as you may all be aware, the current parliament…the 8th legislature of the fourth republic finds itself in what I tend to refer to as a parliamentary crisis…unprecedented in the history of the country.

“If Ghana were to be practicing the pure form of the Westminister system of governance, this current parliament I think would have been described as a near-hung parliament. Evidently, the near-hung nature of our 8th parliament under the fourth republic where none of the two political parties in the country can claim an overwhelming majority in the house introduces a strange phenomenon to Ghana’s democracy….totally unknown to us…we never suspected that we will get to this point,” Kan Dapaah said.

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However, the Speaker, Alban Bagbin, took exception to the use of “near” by the minister after he was invited to make his presentation.

Having touched on the ravaging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ghana’s economy and government’s response to it toward the concluding part of his statement, he advised developed nations to learn from smaller ones who have managed the pandemic better.

Alban Bagbin also agreed with some points Kan Dapaah raised in his presentation including building consensus in the 8th parliament.

“For us in Ghana, our complexities in the past year transcends the Covid – 19 pandemic and this was based on the decision of the electorate to opt for a hung parliament. My friend the minister for national security has given you a very good perspective and I agree with him on many areas that he has touched on except to say it is not a near-hung parliament…it’s a hung parliament,” he emphasized

“The two major parties have 137 members apiece…each party has 137 members. What is interesting about this 137 is that the males are 117 each and the females are 20 each. So this claim of an independent member being a member of the party in government is erroneous and unconstitutional. He [Kan Dapaah] knows very well that if they both belong to the same party, they cannot both hold the positions of deputy speakers of parliament. It is not me saying it..it is the 1992 constitution. It is the standing orders of parliament” he added.

The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association workshop was on the theme “Effective parliamentary scrutiny, gender sensitivity and complexity” and expected to last for three days.

View Albert Kan-Dapaah's Timepath below: