The Majority Leader of Parliament Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu said the huge number of Ministers and Deputies in the Akufo Addo’s led government was a good reason they were voted out at their various constituencies during the December 7, election.
According to Mr. Bonsu, some of these defeated parliamentarians were given some other responsibilities in parliament, making it difficult for them to visit their constituencies to enable them to address issues facing them. He is hoping that the president will have a relook of the situation moving forward.
“Because the hugeness of the numbers that were made Ministers and Deputy Ministers, unfortunately, the flip side was that not too many avails themselves in parliament, tragically we have 19 deputy Ministers from parliament who were first-timers who lost, because of their role, they were not able to go their constituencies as often, as they were ought to be doing because of additional Ministerial responsibility. The president may have to interrogate himself. Because he wanted all hands to be on deck. In my view, some weaknesses were exposed.” He laments
However, Mr. Bonsu raised further issues for the Scrapping of the party national delegate system used in the election of parliamentary candidates. He is of the view that every party member should be allowed to participate in choosing who represents them in parliament to avoid what was witnessed in recent times.
“I have always insisted that we have to interrogate this, my firm belief is that we should expand the membership further downstream, and when it comes to making this determination of the parliamentary candidate, every card bearing member should be allowed to express his or her opinion on that. Indeed, I have been canvassing for this all these while unfortunately the NEC, the National Council hasn’t bought into it.” He stressed
