Members of Parliament on the minority and majority sides are lacing their boots for what promises to be an interesting second session of the Eighth Parliament.
The house ended its first session on a dramatic note in December when members exchanged blows during the failed voting on the controversial electronic transaction levy.
As the house resumes on Tuesday, January 25, Frank Annoh-Dompreh and Muntaka Mubarak who are the majority and minority chief whips respectively have been speaking to Citi News on how the two sides are preparing for proceedings.
Mr. Annoh-Dompreh said the Majority was aware that there was more at stake for his side in Parliament.
“If we are unable to prosecute government business, at the end of the day, the Minority does not lose anything, regardless of the fact they are representatives of their people from various constituencies. At the end of the day, the buck stops with the government,” he said.
The Majority is bent on passing the Electronic Transaction Levy, after failed attempts in December.
Parliament was unable to approve the levy before the end of sittings in 2021, after a contentious approval process that even resulted in a brawl in Parliament following an attempt to consider it under a certificate of urgency.
Muntaka Mubarak said his side was hoping to move beyond the consideration of budget-related issues to tackle matters of covid expenditure, the disturbances in Techiman, the district assembly election, the procurement of mathematical sets, among others.
“Because the budget was on, and we all know during budget processes, it is very difficult to get other business going, so I am sure in our first meeting, these are some of the motions that we will be pursuing very strongly,” the Minority Chief Whip said.
