Heckling in parliament customary - Lecturer

The interruption of the presentation of the president or his ministers on the floor of parliament by the Minority is part of the parliamentary culture in democratic dispensations, Osei Kwadwo, a lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), has said.

The Minority in parliament on Thursday, 2 March violated a directive from the leadership of the house not to carry placards into the house during the reading of the 2017 national budget.

It would be recalled that Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu had said placards would not be entertained in the chamber during the budget presentation.

However, on Thursday, 2 March, the Minority produced placards with the inscription “419 budget” as Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta announced a number of “nuisance taxes” which the government has listed to be scrapped in the fiscal year as part of the budget statement.

However, speaking with Accra News on Friday, 3 March, Mr Osei Kwadwo said: “In every democratic dispensation, heckling takes place in their parliaments. So what happened in Ghana’s parliament yesterday was normal. It is when it gets violent where some people throw stones, seats, and sticks that it becomes problematic.

“The Speaker himself, when he was MP, also engaged in such behaviour. This will continue, it is part of the culture in parliament.”