News:
February 16, 2025
Amenfi West lawmaker in Ghana’s Parliament Eric Afful is pushing for the Nation to start sitting in the afternoon to make time for lawmakers to attend to business of the House in their numbers as issues of quorum most of the time are raised when serious business of the House is in motion.
According to him his colleagues in the Minority usually come under order 54 and article 102 of the 1992 Ghanaians Republic constitution when the number in the House seems small.
“Let us shift our sitting time from 10:00am in the morning to 2:00 pm; it will help MPs to be in their seats so that the morning can be used for administrative duties and help ministers of state to prepare adequately to come and answer parliamentary questions and the Speakers to have other administrative works to do”.
The Amenfi West MP who has been a member of the Business Committee for almost eight years indicated that he has visited other World Parliaments and gave an example of Zambian Parliament where sitting starts in the afternoon, stating that “if we can do this, it will go a long way to help us”.
Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga on his part indicated that he has always advocated for afternoon sitting having gone round the West Africa sub-regional Parliaments and witnessed sitting being conducted in the afternoon.
This, he said allows the professionals who are lawmakers including doctors, lawyers and businessmen and women to go and practice when they get elected so that their services are not missed; and added that for now nothing can be done but it is for the Speaker of Parliament to decide.
Kwaku Saky-Danso/Ghanamps.com