The minority National Democratic Congress Members of Parliament have ended an unprecedented four-day boycott of the House and concluded that their action has been successful.
The NDC group last Tuesday hurriedly announced that they were boycotting the work of Parliament in solidarity with colleague Enoch Teye Mensah, former Youth and Sports Minister, who was incarcerated for two days by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for suspected involvement in the Nima riots. The group said BNI's action against the member constituted a breach on the dignity and privileges of MPs. For four sitting days, the 92-strong NDC group hovered around the chamber but not stepped foot there.
The nostalgia of boycotts and walk-outs was pervading during the week as members recalled how the now ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) then in minority, used these non-violent and non-co-operative tools to vent their anger at decisions by the NDC group who enjoyed an overwhelming majority of 133 to 64.
It is also known that during the Second Republic, the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL) group, struggling to survive under the sheer weight of the ruling Progress Party (PP), used these measures a lot to press home their demands and grievances.
The first President of the West African country, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's Convention People's Party (CPP) also "intimidated" the small groups in Parliament in the first republic who had cause to resort to boycotts and other measures to achieve their aim. It is even alleged that when the "motion of destiny" was to be voted on other parties apart from the majority CPP were absent. In all these cases, the power and logic of numbers worked well for the majority and they only appealed to the striking side to join them to enhance parliamentary harmony and cordiality.
Unlike the majority parties in previous Parliaments, the NPP with its slim majority has had to struggle to keep its members in the house to form the necessary quorum in times like the current NDC boycott. These is because of the constitutional provision that makes it obligatory for majority of Ministers to come from the legislature and for which reason most of the ministers are unable to attend sittings regularly.
Already, a lot of compromises have been made on the house's rules and conventions to accommodate this usual numerical arrangement in the house. One of the glaring compromises is the approval of Ministers to belong to select committees, which hitherto was not allowed. The logic behind that rule was that the executive might tend to interfere in the work of committees, which are supposed to scrutinize the work of the executive.
The majority, aware of the fact that they lack the overwhelming majority to do as they please, have been able to "win over" to their fold two Independent Members, the three People's National Convention Members and the only CPP Member. They have also kept the hotline between them and the minority buzzing all day in a bid to settle disputes back stage before coming to the open. This strategy seemed to be working well until the NDC’s unexpected decision to boycott proceedings and there is no doubt that their absence has had a toll on the work of the house.
For instance, 35 persons screened for deputy ministerial appointments could not be approved because the House could not raise the required quorum of 101 members despite the efforts by the Majority to apply the whip.
Minority Leader, Alban Bagbin assured the GNA that the boycotting members would fill their seats at the next sitting for normal parliamentary work to resume but promised that more of such actions could be taken in future.
