Minority threatens to boycott Parliament if house extends sittings

The Minority in Parliament has warned it will boycott Parliament if the sitting is extended beyond, Saturday, 4th April, 2020.

There are however fears the House may extend sitting by a few days to allow a Constitutional Instrument presented by the Electoral Commission mature.

The EC presented the Constitutional Instrument to amend C.I 91 to make the Ghana card or passport acceptable documents for registration onto the voters’ register.

The C.I needs to go through the mandatory 21 sitting days requirement to mature.

But Deputy Minority Leader, James Avedzi Klutse, says his side may not be part of the extended sittings if it is suggested.

He said at a time the case count for Coronavirus in the country keeps rising, the Minority cannot put their lives at risk.

In an interview on CitiFM’s Eyewitness News, Mr Avedzi said “If there should be an extension, we extend for one week. We are putting our lives at risk. You see us interacting with people every time. Meanwhile, we are talking about social spacing and distancing. We do not know whom amongst us has the disease and you want us to continue staying for another 21 sitting days. I think this will be too much for Parliament.”

“The new bill was laid on Wednesday so the House has to sit for another 21 days but the House cannot sit because of [the] C.I. We cannot continue. Parliament usually has calendars that we follow,” he added.

The Minority side was absent in parliament last Saturday.

The only Minority Member who showed up, MP for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak, left after he failed to catch the eye of the Speaker when he stood up.

“Last week, there were indications that we will not be part of proceedings today on conditions that time allotted for us to do business has not been exhausted fully to allow for Saturdays. There were also indications that the Finance Minister was coming but I got here and I was told he will not be coming,” he told Citi News in an interview.