An Associate Professor with the University of Ghana, Ransford Gyampo, has said Ghanaians should expect the on-going disagreements in Parliament if the Majority side does not reach out to the Minority.
According to him, the leadership of a hung Parliament should know the situation they are in to be able to ensure that Parliament plays its role as a countervailing to the powers of the Executive and at the same time ensure that government business is still carried out.
“So they must show leadership and they must be magnanimous in being sincerely conciliatory in reaching out to the other side. I’ve heard the argument of putting the blame on the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin and I am saying those who canvass these arguments are either ignorant or they are hypocrites,” he told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr on Tuesday. added.
He explained that no partisan Member of Parliament should expect a partisan Speaker to be neutral “because there is no neutral Speaker of Parliament in any democracy, it doesn’t happen. The solution is not putting blame on anybody, the solution is about thinking outside the box to be able to be humble and reach out to the other side.”
“What is happening now is not different in a hung Parliament where people are beaten. Elsewhere the whole Parliament grinds to a halt. In Malawi at one point in time they had a hung Parliament, for four-years they could not function, it was just there.
“So these are just a few of the features of a hung Parliament, it is good for democracy depending on how you handle it and it can also hurt democracy. To be able to ensure that it plays its role to help advance the course of democracy, first of all, those on both sides must understand what a hung Parliament is and know what they can do and not do. But it appears that those who are in the particular Parliament they don’t understand what it is,” he disclosed.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Isaac Dzidzoamenu
