Parliament resumes sitting next Monday, December 14

The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye, has directed that Parliament resumes sitting on Monday, December 14, 2020, for the Third Meeting of the Fourth Session of the Seventh Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

Speaker Oquaye on Saturday, November 7, adjourned Parliament sine die, to enable members to participate in the final leg of campaigning prior to the December 7 polls.

The electorate went to the polls as scheduled to elect a president and members of Parliament, at which the Electoral Commission declared incumbent President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the winner of the presidential election.

The Speaker, in a communique, said when the House resumed on Monday, it would sit to finish the last leg of the sittings of the Seventh Parliament before it dissolved on the night of January 6, 2021, to be followed by the inauguration of a new Parliament, to be the Eight under the Fourth Republic.

The Fourth Republic was birthed with the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana that came into effect on January 7, 1993.

It provides the basic charter for the country's fourth attempt at republican democratic government since independence in 1957.

The 1992 Constitution declares Ghana to be a unitary republic with sovereignty residing in the Ghanaian people.

Drawn up with the intent of preventing future coups, dictatorial governments, and one party state, it is designed to foster tolerance and the concept of power-sharing.

The Constitution reflects the lessons drawn from the abrogated constitutions of 1957, 1960, 1969, and 1979, and it incorporates provisions and institutions drawn from British and United States constitutional models.

In his closing remarks, before the adjournment of Parliament, the Speaker expressed confidence that the next proceedings would be orderly, fair and credible.

When the House was adjourning last November, the Speaker said: “The House is making adequate preparations towards the dissolution of the Seventh Parliament and I urge all to work in tandem for a seamless transition.”

With the elections over, and following the Speaker’s directive, the House would be back on Monday, December 14, 2020, and would be followed by its dissolution at midnight on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, to pave the way for the Eighth Parliament on the morning of Thursday, January 7, 2021.

The Seventh Parliament would have maintained the full numerical strength of 275 at the time of the last adjournment had Mr Andrew Amoako Asiamah, MP for Fomena, not been withdrawn for his decision to contest as an independent candidate in the elections, and also the loss of Mr Ekow Hayford Kwansah in a gruesome murder last October.

Mr Asiamah defied the sanctions from his Party, the New Patriotic Party, contested and won the 2020 parliamentary poll for Fomena as an independent candidate.

The substantive Speaker will, in the morning of January 7, swear in the new MPs, and the elected President, with the ceremony being held at the Parliament House rather than the Black Star Square.