Under the fourth republic the two dominant parties the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has win power and govern the country with always leading with the majority in parliament.
However the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections under the 8th parliament have given birth to a result with hung parliament, where the culture of executive influence seems to be under threat.
The Member of Parliament for Tema East Hon. Isaac Ashai Odamtten said on Adekyee Mu Nsem morning show on Ahotro FM hosted by Nana Dogbe in Accra.
In another development, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has indicated that Ghana’s 8th Parliament under the 4th Republic is the best out of the lot.
According to him, the hung parliament has prevented the governing party and the executive from forcing policies, programmes, and initiatives on Ghanaians by bulldozing their way through parliament.
Addressing a public forum in the Volta Regional capital of Ho, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the parliament under the 4th Republic, he entreated Ghanaians to endeavour to always ensure that both the majority and minority sides of the House have balanced numbers.
The 8th parliament has 137 members from the governing New Patriotic Party, and 137 members from the opposition National Democratic Congress, with one independent candidate, totaling 275 members.
Hon. Odamtten is of the view that the hung parliament sustained issues on national interest and policies of the citizens has become paramount interest of the country, this he believes helps to put the interest of the country first on all debates with national interest.
He further stated that, the debate in the house has give room for more consultation on strategic and important issue which brings the concerns of the citizenry to attract attention.
He is of the view that the New Patriotic Party government under the leadership of Nana Akufo-Addo is indigenous to the economic hardship of Ghana and the 2024 budget is pregnant with debt and with high revenue expenditure projection.
While looking at the Household and Income survey of Ghana, it carries a lot deficit of multi-dimensional poor indicators showing that the citizens cannot get the best of the investment the government is investing the service sector.
The various productive sectors such as industry, mining, Agriculture and service industry projections are in negative this has brought severe hardship into the economy and about 50% of Ghanaians are dimensionally poor.
Touching on the District Assembly Election he urged all contestants to respect the law governing the local governance structures to give their best since under fourth republic the assembly served as the governance centre for local development.
It’s on record and visible in some electoral areas where some aspirants are doing their best to puts up streets lights and other facelifts of some facilities to win the hearts of the voters. This he believes calls for the central government to resource all the assemblies’ throughout country to develop local electoral area in the country.
Though the assembly elections is non political, in his understanding looking at the outcome of every assembly elections, political parties has a lot of stake in sponsoring and supporting for candidates.
He urged the democratic institutions and agencies to support women to be part and parcel of our democracy.
Though we can see some women making the efforts to be part political party election process; he called on all the political parties to create enabling environment for women to have high percentage stake in all elections in the country.
Revisiting the challenges parents are going through the placement of new students into the Free Senior High School, he said the government has to be blame, since there is a tendency for financial influence for parents to buy their way before their wards is given admission.
AYM Kukah.E:mail:kukahalexander7@gmail.com
