First Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Member of Parliament for Bekwai in the Ashanti Region, Joseph Osei-Owusu, has argued that the Minority caucus in parliament cannot be blamed for the stifled parliamentary business in the past days.
Parliamentary business on the floor of the House in the last weeks has been stalled following the boycott of the activities by the minority.
According to the minority, the boycott is to register their protest against what they describe as unreasonable and unfair prosecution of the NDC Member of Parliament for Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson. The MPs on the opposition side earlier served notice that they will be boycotting the activities of the House on any day James Gyakye Quayson is to appear in court,
Following this move, the House could not conduct business in the last week due to the absenteeism on the part of the legislators.
The House on Thursday, July 20, had to adjourn sittings due to a lack of quorum.
The situation, therefore, forced the hand of the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, to task the leadership of both Caucuses to act responsibly in ensuring their members are present in Parliament for business activities to take place.
Both sides of the House have accused each other of deliberately attempting to stifle government business in the parliament,
But speaking on Accra-based Joy News on Saturday, the legislator for Bekwai said that the Majority members can form a quorum in the absence of the Minority, so he would not blame the Minority for the failure to do business in the House.
“Assuming just for the purposes of argument that the Minority decides not to come to Parliament for the rest of the year, the Majority has sufficient numbers to do business in the house. So, I will not blame the Minority for any failure to do business. I am saying that if there is a failure to do business, it is because Members of Parliament need 92 members to be present, and we need 138 members to take a decision. In each situation, the Majority has the numbers,” the first deputy speaker of parliament opined.
