Poor attendance in parliament compels house to adjourn

Parliament adjourned sitting earlier today around 11: 55 am till Tuesday 23rd June 2020 due to poor attendance as a result of the upcoming NPP primaries scheduled for Saturday, 20th June, 2020.

This means the House cannot sit tomorrow Friday, 19th June as expected.

At the time of adjournment of sitting by the Speaker Prof Michael Aaron Oquaye, there were only ten (10 ) majority members and twenty (20 ) minority members making a total of 30 members in the chamber out of the 275 members of Parliament.

Moving the motion for the adjournment of the House, the Majority Leader, Hon Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu stressed the need for the political parties especially the NDC and the NPP to review how they go about their primaries to elect their Parliamentary Candidates.

He suggested that such primaries should not coincide with the meeting of Parliament otherwise business in the chamber will be seriously affected as the House is experiencing currently.

The Majority Leader noted that building the capacity of MPs requires more than four years of experience in Parliament hence the political parties need to come out with a system that can help prolong the tenure of members of Parliament in order to help promote Parliamentary democracy in the country.

Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu pointed out that monetization of politics is a great threat to the country's democracy

Seconding the motion for adjournment, the Minority Whip and MP for Asawase, Hon Muntaka Mubarak supported the concerns raised by the Majority Leader.

He said the current system by which the political parties go about their primaries breeds corruption as people or some constituents expect MPs to pay them in order to have the opportunity to serve them as legislators.

374 Battle for 101 slots

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has released the list of candidates contesting the 2020 primaries in constituencies where the party has sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), slated for Saturday, June 20.

In the 168 such constituencies, 375 aspirants will contest in only 101 constituencies, while 65 candidates will go unopposed.

Three constituencies have also been suspended from the primaries due to certain developments that have cropped up in those areas.

They are Kwadaso in the Ashanti Region, Gushegu in the Northern Region, and Dormaa Central in the Bono Region. Modalities for the elections

Giving the modalities, the General Secretary of the party, Mr. John Boadu said the primaries would be held on an electoral area basis, per the Electoral Commission’s (EC’s) designation.

He, however, said the members of the Constituency Council of Elders, the Constituency Executive Committee, as well as the party’s founding members who were signatories to the registration document of the party at the EC, would all be accredited to vote at the Constituency Secretariat.

Mr Boadu said voting would commence at 7 a.m. and end at 1 p.m., adding that counting would be done immediately after the close of polls at each Electoral Area Polling Centre and the Constituency Secretariat Polling Centre.