Parliament wants minimum academic qualification for MPs

Parliament is demanding a minimum academic qualification by political parties for parliamentary candidates as it laments low quality of MPs.

The House wants political parties to set a minimum academic qualification requirements for members who want to enter parliament on their tickets.

The proposal follows concerns of lack of quality lawmakers in the country’s parliament.

Speaking at a Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs forum on assessment of the committee system, ranking member for Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Inusah Fuseini argued the free for all system being practiced by political parties in the country is populating the chamber with MPs of poor qualities.

Minister for parliamentary affairs Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu blamed the framers of the 1992 constitution for the development.

According to him, basic academic qualification was a criterion for entering parliament until the Constitution jettisoned it.

“If you have a general qualification to be in parliament, you should be versatile such that if you are posted anywhere u can perform,” Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said.