He explained that the opportunity for the House to be split in two, with only one member altering the equation, gives it that unique status and should be allowed to thrive.
“When you look at the architecture that the Almighty God gifted to the country, through the eighth parliament of the Fourth Republic, it must be appreciated by all lovers of democracy. Let’s give the hang parliament a chance,” he said.
Addressing the House during its first sitting for the year, Alban Bagbin explained the details of the eighth parliament that distinguishes it from all others, adding that with this kind of composition, they are left with no choice than to ensure it thrives.
“Clearly, there is no opportunity now for a roaring and tumultuous majority vote which sometimes gets it catastrophically wrong, neither is there an opportunity to be an obstructionist opposition
“The unique composition of 137 members apiece with equal numbers of gender distribution of 117 males and 20 females on each side of the House and just one independent member altering the equation, gives this parliament a unique membership structure indeed,” he said.
He therefore appealed to the conscience of Ghanaians to deal with it as they work around this unusual composition of Members of Parliament in any of the country’s republic.
“It’s with this I call on beloved Ghanaians to know that we have no choice than to comply with details and consequences of this new order which comes with such a composition,” he added.
Earlier, we had reported that the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, had said that the frequent booting out of Members of Parliament after every four years makes them less experienced in contributing substantially to the development of their respective areas.
He has therefore called on electorates to rather be a little more tolerating, allowing their representatives more time to stay in parliament and to contribute to the progress of the country.
“In this game, monkeys play by sizes. It is good and proper to allow elected Members of Parliament to mature in Parliament. You can’t keep changing your members of Parliament like shirts and expect to reap good dividends.
“You must give them the time to grow to be able to produce the dividends that you want,” myjoyonline.com quoted Bagbin as having said.
Alban Bagbin made this known while speaking at the 2022 Commonwealth Parliamentary Association workshop on the theme, “Effective parliamentary scrutiny, gender sensitivity and complexity.”
He also used the opportunity to call for Members of Parliament to prioritise consultations.
He said this would foster development in the country.
“The only way is to get the two sides to consult and to dialogue with each other, to cooperate, to compromise, to collaborate to achieve consensus, this is an imperative imposed on us political leaders by the people of Ghana, we have no choice,” Bagbin further said.
Parliament has already been split on the controversial 1.75% Electronic Levy currently before it and as the House resumes on Tuesday, January 25, 2022, it is expected to be one of the issues that would be revisited especially since the government is bent on getting it passed.
