Enough of the drama over Majority in Parliament – Opare Ansah to NDC MPs

Former lawmaker for Suhum, Fredrick Opare Ansah says the ‘drama’ over which side constitutes the Majority in Parliament must end for the House to deal with serious matters.

According to him, history provides enough evidence to back the majority claim being made by the NPP caucus in the House.

On Friday, Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin left both NPP and NDC caucuses confused with his ruling on which party constitutes Majority in the House.

The speaker after reading out a letter from independent Fomena MP stating his decision to side with the NPP ruled they thus constitute the majority group.

The announcement sent the NPP MPs on their feet in a jubilant mood.

Leader of the NDC in the Chamber Haruna Iddrisu had argued the decision by the Fomena MP does not give the NPP superior numbers since he remains an independent MP.

In an article on the impasse, the experienced ex-lawmaker said there should be no confusion over who leads the House.

“Is the NDC saying that, the NPP was wrong in 2009 in recognizing the majority caucus that the NDC formed together with one independent and the PNC MPs? I think there has been enough of this drama and it is time to recognize things for what they are so the House can get into doing some serious business,” he wrote.

The Speaker of Parliament has however noted the courts will in due course determine the majority and minority as many of the seats are being challenged by both sides.



Below are details of his article

In the 5th Parliament, there were 230 seats. 116 seats were required for the formation of the Majority Caucus.

The 2008 Parliament results returned the following:

NDC – 114

NPP – 107

PNC – 2

CPP – 1

IND – 4

Undeclared – 2

This notwithstanding, the NPP side agreed and respected the fact that, some of the minority Parties and Independent MPs had given an indication that they will do business with the NDC side. As a result, during the inaugural sitting, the NDC sat on the right side and their leadership led by Hon. A. S. K. Bagbin were recognized as the Majority Leadership.

3 of the Independents together with the lone CPP ranger of an MP would later choose to do business with the NPP group while one Independent MP and the 2 PNC MPs would opt for the NDC group. This brought the caucuses to look like:

Majority caucus: 117

Minority caucus: 111

Asutifi South was later declared in favour of the NDC and after the rerun of the 6 polling stations in Akwatia the seat was declared for the NPP.

Is the NDC saying that, the NPP was wrong in 2009 in recognizing the majority caucus that the NDC formed together with one independent and the PNC MPs? I think there has been enough of this drama and it is time to recognize things for what they are so the House can get into doing some serious business.