Minority abstains from debate on State of the Nation Address

The Minority yesterday[TuesdayFebruary, 25 2020] stayed away from participating in the debate on the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Parliament.

The motion for the debate was moved by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ofoase/Ayirebi, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.

After moving the motion, the Speaker, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, asked who in the House seconded the motion and the MP for New Juaben South, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, rose to second it.

 Position

Before he could contribute to the motion, the Speaker interrupted him and told the Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, that it was customary that when such motions were moved on his right side of the House, the seconder must be from the Minority on his left side.

He, therefore, asked the Minority what their position was on the secondment.

Responding to the Speaker, Alhaji Mubarak-Muntaka agreed with the Speaker that while it was a convention for a motion to be seconded by a Minority member “our principle is that we are not participating in the debate so we will not be speaking to it.

That is why we are quiet.”

Respect decision

The Speaker then called on the Majority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who told the House that a Member of Parliament was not required to be in the House to participate in any voting on any question that was put in the House.

“After we have debated, a question put on this motion, any member who is not in the House when the statement is being made is still technically qualified to participate in the debate; nothing prevents the Minority from participating in the debate

“The decision is totally theirs to participate or not to participate,” he acknowledged the position of the Minority which he said must be respected.

The Majority Leader, however, told the House that the debate of the President’s State of the Nation Address could still proceed.

Concerns

In an interview later with the press, Alhaji Muntaka said majority of the Minority Caucus voted overwhelmingly that they should not participate and “we as leaders implement what our members agree to do.

“The general principle was that we should keep to the principle of wanting this SONA to be registered as one that we the Minority walked out for the reason that we stated.

“It is the belief of most of our members that if we participate, we will truncate the longevity of our walkout and we think that we should allow the walkout to stay longer so that the President will have the time to reflect on the issues we raised about media freedom, abuse of power and the EC compiling a new voters register,” he said.

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