Out of Ghana’s 106 Minority MPs, only five were present in parliament on Friday, 22 February 2019 for business, Class91.3FM’s parliamentary correspondent, Ekow Annan, reported.
It is unclear why so many of the MPs from the Minority Caucus were absent.
Ekow Annan said there are speculations that most of them have travelled to their various constituencies to take part in the NDC’s presidential primaries to be held on Saturday, 23 February.
He explained that usually, the leadership of both sides would ask permission on behalf of their members before being absent.
The house was expected to deliberate on a concern raised by the Majority Women’s Caucus about the brandishing of placards on the floor with the inscription "bloody widow" during the swearing-in ceremony of Ayawaso West Wuogon MP, Lydia Alhassan.
On 6 February 2019, First Deputy Speaker, Joe Osei-Owusu ordered the Clerk and Table Office to produce footages of proceedings of that day to identify those MPs for appropriate sanctions to be meted out to them. This was after the leadership of the Minority side failed to apologise for the misconduct of its members.
In response to a parliamentary question on the floor of the house filed by Ablekuma Central MP, Ebenezer Nii Narh Nartey for an update on the matter, Deputy Majority Leader, Sarah Adwoa Safo told the house that the Clerk and Table Office are unable to identify the MPs after reviewing the visuals on the proceedings.
She added that the leadership is engaging the public affairs department to get the visuals from other media houses to help deal with those MPs.