The Minority Caucus in Parliament has expressed grave concern over the persistent absence of the members of the Majority Caucus on the floor of Parliament.
The caucus said the continued absenteeism of Majority MPs was gradually becoming a major drawback to the smooth conduct of President John Mahama’s agenda in Parliament.
“The 189 super Majority of the NDC can form a quorum on their own, have enough members to conduct business and enough members to take most fundamental decisions yet they do not come to Parliament,” the Minority Caucus said.
These concerns were raised at the commencement of public business on the floor of Parliament on Thursday, [Oct 20, 2025].
Lack of quorum
That was after the First Deputy Minority Whip, Habib Iddrisu, for the second consecutive time, raised an issue with a lack of quorum for the House to proceed with business.
He rose to his feet to draw the Speaker’s attention to article 102 of the Constitution, which states that “A quorum of Parliament, apart from the person presiding, shall be one-third of all the members of Parliament”.
The Tolon MP said one-third of the 276 members of the House were 92, but there were only 70 MPs in the Chamber at the start of business.
He, therefore, urged the Speaker to apply the rules of the Constitution, which required that the House has a quorum to continue business.
“Mr Speaker, yesterday you cautioned all of us and the media carried that if we are not serious about continuing business, we should not let Ghanaians think the same,” he said.
Lame super majority
Contributing, the MP for Damango, Samuel Abu Jinapor, recalled how the Speaker admonished members yesterday (October 29) to take their duties seriously.
In line with that advice, he recalled how the Speaker went ahead to publish the names of 28 MPs who missed parliamentary business for a certain number of days.
Saying that the composition of the current Parliament was a very special one, first in Ghana’s history, Mr Jinapor said today Ghana has a Parliament where a particular group has a super majority.
“Mr Speaker, they have two-thirds and it has never happened in the Fourth Republican dispensation as of the 276 MPs, the Majority side has 189 members of Parliament,” he said.
With the House dealing mostly in government business, and for a reason, the Majority Leader was mostly referred to as the Leader of government business. He said throughout the first, second, and third sessions of the present Parliament, the 189 NDC MPs consistently failed to show up in the House.
He said the NDC side could form a quorum on their own, have enough members to conduct business, and enough members to take most fundamental decisions.
“And yet, they do not come to Parliament,” he said, pointing out important government businesses that were contained in the October 30, 2025 Order Paper to be taken, including the laying and discussion of the Scholarship Scheme paper to cater for the welfare of students in the country.
“They say they are the super majority and we are a micro minority, and yet they cannot carry government business through.
“Ghanaian people queued and stood in the sun on December 7 and gave the 189 NDC MPs an extraordinary mandate because they want President Mahama’s business and agenda to go through this House without any hindrance,” he said.
Stop the propaganda
Countering the Minority’s argument, the Majority Chief Whip, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, said Article 102 has given effect in Order 64 of the Standing Orders.
He said that the Order provided the Speaker the opportunity to ascertain the veracity of the basis for raising a lack of quorum within the premise of Article 102.
He, therefore, urged the Speaker to direct the Clerks at Table to cause the bell to be rung while the Speaker continued the business of the House for a period of 10 minutes.
Mr Dafeamekpor also urged the Speaker to direct the Clerk to conduct a headcount of members present, and if there was still no quorum, he could suspend the sitting of the House for a period of no more than one hour.
“Mr Speaker, if on resumption of sitting, there is still no quorum, upon the conduct of a head count, the House shall stand adjourned until the next sitting day without question being put,” he said.
Arguing that there were 176 members in the House yesterday, Mr Dafeamekpor urged the Majority members to stop doing propaganda with the issues of quorum in a bid to disrupt government business.
He said contrary to laid-down arrangement, that committee businesses should be done in the morning for members to join the plenary at 2 p.m. it had been discovered that committee leaders were rather allowing meetings to be done in the afternoon.
He, therefore, implored committee chairpersons to conduct committee business from 9 a.m. up to mid-day.
“We are depleted because of the committee’s sittings,” he said.
103 members present
Soon after Mr Dafeamkpor’s counterargument, the Speaker directed the Clerk at the Table to cause the bell to be rung for 10 minutes and later conduct a headcount.
After the headcount, the Speaker announced that there were 103 members in the House and allowed business to proceed.
