Ghana’s current parliament is the best in our history – Speaker

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has described Ghana’s 8th Parliament under the 4th Republic as the best out of the lot.

Alban Bagbin explained that the hung parliament has prevented the governing party and the executive from forcing policies, programmes, and initiatives on Ghanaians by bulldozing their way through parliament.

He made the remarks while addressing a public forum in the Volta Regional capital of Ho, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the parliament under the 4th Republic.

“This hung parliament is not like the other parliaments, and I would want to urge all of you to let us continue along this path, and with time you will see the difference. We take time to take decisions, but we build consensus in taking the decision. We don’t push it down the throat of many people.

I have heard some other voices say we should not vote that way again. I don’t want to see any party with a huge majority in parliament. I am sharing my experiences with you. If you think against this, do it and see what will happen,” he stressed.

He admonished Ghanaian voters to always ensure that both the majority and minority sides of the House have balanced numbers.

The 8th parliament has 137 members from the governing New Patriotic Party, and 137 members from the opposition National Democratic Congress, with one independent candidate, totaling 275 members.

He added that a hung house is “very difficult to manage” but indicated that it best prevents leaders from becoming possible dictators by having their way through parliament.

The Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, Togbe Afede XIV, who chaired the occasion, indicated that national goals captured in the 1992 constitution have not been achieved within the last 30 years.

“There are several graduates of six years standing who are still looking for jobs. What it means, therefore, is that we have not achieved the objectives of our people. You’ve not realized the dreams of our founding fathers, and of course, we have not realized the aspirations that are enshrined in our 1992 constitution”, he stressed.

“This forum would not have been happening at a better time than now, time to take stock, time for parliament to look back and ask, how much have we done to facilitate the development of the country? How much have we done to raise living standards? How much have we done to bring business to our people? That is the essence”, he added.