Afenyo-Markin’s timing for recall of Parliament problematic – Sammy Obeng

The Executive Director of Parliamentary Network Africa, Sammy Obeng, has described as problematic the timing of Alexander Afenyo-Markin’s memo to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, regarding a recall of the House.

The Speaker of Parliament has declined the Majority Leader's request to recall the house before the upcoming elections, citing practical challenges and the need for members of Parliament to focus on their constituencies.

In a memo, the Speaker outlined reasons why convening Parliament before the elections was not feasible, emphasizing the difficulty of gathering members who are currently in their constituencies.

Speaking on Starr Today with Tutuwa Danso, Sammy Obeng mentioned that the timing of Afenyo-Markin presenting the memo to the Speaker of Parliament was bad.

“Well, the timing was problematic. And of course, we’ve got to be practical with these. Of course, he is the majority leader and leader of government business”, he explained.

The Executive Director added that the Speaker’s reason for declining the request to recall the house before elections is that, parliament would have time to address a significant volume of work after the elections.

“The house should brace itself for quite a good volume of work to be done after elections, considering the limited time it would have before this Parliament gets dissolved”, he noted.

Mr. Obeng also said that this decision by the speaker will allow members of Parliament to concentrate on their election campaigns and when parliament is resumed, they can work extensively to make up for the lost time.

“Maybe this allows for a period for members of Parliament to focus and concentrate on the election. And once they are back, we’ll expect that they’ll put in double work to be able to make room for all of the lost time,” the Executive Director stated.