Election 2020: Parliament bemoans the loss of 111 parliamentarians

The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has said that the experienced legislators losing their seats at the just ended December 7 polls will largely affect the work of parliament.

A total of 111 members of the seventh parliament will not return to the legislative house for the eighth parliaments in January 2021.

This means seventy-eight (78) members of the NPP and thirty-three (33) NDC MPs will not return to the eighth (8) parliament.

According to the Ministry, the high rates at which Members of Parliament are consistently changed has and is still weakening parliament.

Chief Director for the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Dr. Evans Aggrey Darko said, “It is a big blow to lose these numbers in parliament but I am not surprised at the figures. One of the issues we have constantly discussed is the rate at which parliament loses experienced minds. Since the 4th republic, the strength of parliament keeps dwindling because of the high attrition rates”.

He furthered that in any profession, one regards those with experience as they understand procedures and make work easier. “With parliament, the conduct of those who have been in parliament for a while will not be compared to those who just entered. The wealth of experience sets you apart,” he explained.

“Because parliament involves highly procedural processes, you always need learned and experienced legislators and if you don’t have them, it becomes problematic. You will realize that the workload will fall on the very few MPs who retained their seats”.

He believes new entrants to parliament will lose interest when it comes to the crafting of the laws and bills because the process is new to them.

“They now have to navigate the rough waters of legislation and all of that. These are the critical problems we need to talk about”.

On his authority, if nothing is done about the high attrition rates in parliament, the house would soon because less useful.

Dr. Aggrey added that “They have their own backgrounds and experience. I am sure they can bring to bear the conduct of parliament and parliamentary business”.

The New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress will both have some of their MPs not returning to parliament because some lost at the parliamentary elections last Monday, others lost at their primaries with others voluntarily retiring.