NPP likely to constitute majority in Parliament - Kyei-Menssah-Bonsu

The Leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Caucus in Parliament, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has said his side is likely to constitute the majority because the independent member for Fomena has decided to pitch camp with the NPP.

He explained that both the NPP and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) were split with 137 members of Parliament (MPs) each, with an independent MP as the decider.

At a press conference in Accra in reaction to an earlier press briefing by the NDC Caucus in Parliament on Thursday [Jan 14, 2021], Mr Kyei-Menssah-Bonsu insisted that the rules of Ghana’s Parliament recognised the two sides; the majority and minority caucuses.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu also clarified that given the circumstances the House found itself, the person who bore the trump card was the independent MP and that wherever he decided to pitch his camp would determine who constituted the majority.

Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Leader of the NDC Caucus, at a press conference, had said despite the fact that Mr Andrews Asiamah Amoako, the Independent MP for Fomena, having written officially to do business with the NPP Caucus, did not make the NPP side the majority in Parliament.

Mr Kyei-Menssah-Bonsu also revealed that when the Leadership of both NDC and NPP Caucuses met the Speaker, Mr Alban Bagbin three days ago, he made it clear to them that where the Fomena MP decided to pitch camp would determine where the pendulum would swing.

He said fortunately at that meeting the Fomena MP was around and the Speaker asked him to write officially, which side he intended to align with so he could make the declaration at the plenary when the House resumed on Friday, January 15, 2021.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu insisted that the election of the Speaker on January 7 was by consensus as result of the consultation among the leadership.

He revealed that when the leadership met the Speaker as part of the consensus building, the NDC caucus proposed that in the formation of the various Committees there should be consensus, but which he said the current Standing Order of Parliament did not support.

He however stated that he was not opposed to minority parties chairing some of the Committees of Parliament, adding that it was a practice in the established democracies and in the axiom, which states “a parliament is a strong as its committees”.

- GNA