General News of Friday, 3 December 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2021-12-03Why Parliament sat for four minutes on December 2 and adjourned
Parliament has in the last week seen walkouts and stay aways
Parliament sat for four minutes and adjourned on December 2, 2021
Bawku Central MP says the move was strategic
Parliament has recently descended into chaos over disagreements on 2022 budget
Parliament sat for less than five minutes yesterday, Thursday, December 2, 2021; before the house was adjourned by the presiding speaker.
The development was
Read full articleconfirmed by Bawku Central Member of Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, who said the decision to do so was taken by leadership after a series of meetings earlier in the day.
GhanaWeb monitored comments that he made on Citi FM’s Eye Witness news programme on Thursday evening.
Asked whether cooperation between the Majority and Minority caucuses was so deep to trigger the brief sitting, he said it was a leadership decision that was strategic.
“Yes we went to the chamber and decided to defer all matters till next week…. we sat in the chambers, we faced each other and then we adjourned.
“That is because of the decision by the leaders after the meetings, they communicated to us that they had decided that we should adjourn to next week. I think basically that is what happened, I mean for very strategic reasons,” he added.
The House reconvenes next Tuesday, December 7 to continue the business because today, December 3 is a statutory holiday.
Meanwhile, a 20-member bipartisan committee has been put together to deal specifically with a way to deescalate rising tensions in the House.
This week witnessed chaotic scenes between members of the house in respect to the Majority’s move this week to reverse the November 26 vote to reject the 2022 Budget presented by the Finance Minister.
The Majority who staged a walkout during the session presided over by Speaker Alban Bagbin, rescinded the rejection before approving the budget on Tuesday, December 1.
On December 2, 2021, the minority returned to the House and filed a motion to also reverse the approval, which decision sit-in Speaker and MP for Bekwai Joe Wise shot down leading to feisty exchanges on the floor.
