News:
August 11, 2025
Minority Leader Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin (Osahene ) has underscored the important of hansard in the practice of parliamentary democracy.
According to him the value of Parliament is not only measured by the laws they as lawmakers enact or the motion adopted but is also reflected in the integrity of the records that are kept as the fidelity with which they, chronicle their deliberations and the depth of accountability which they permit the public to access their proceedings.
He made these remarks at the opening of the 11th Biennial conference of the Commonwealth hansard editors association, Africa region which is being held in Accra for a week starting, Monday, August 11, 2025.
Mr. Afenyon-Markin noted that hansard, remains one of the most important pillars of institutional memory and democratic legitimacy with any parliamentary democracy and has its root in the British parliamentary tradition and is more than a verbatim record.
It’s the institutional consciousness of Parliament. It provides complete accurate record of the debate and decision that shapes the life of our people.
It’s a critical resource of legal scholars, political scientists, historians, journalists, civil society actors and judges.
And recounted how hansard has contributed in resolving litigation in Ghana’s court, the first matter of Benjamin Ayi Mensah vrs the Electoral Commission, where the matter of whether or not the EC had any constitutional instrument at the time it initiated the district Assemblies concept in Ghana after three days of argument in the Supreme Court of Ghana.
My lord Atugba the presiding judge then called for the hansard of Parliament to resolve the matter. The procurement of the hansard finally led the court in coming out with a decision that has become part of the Country’s legal system.
The second was the matter of Afenyo and the Rt. Hon Speaker of parliament, where upon the pronouncements of the Speaker on some vacant seats became a matter of controversy. Again the Hansard provided some clarity regarding the controversy in the House of Parliament. The Supreme Court guided by that was able to take a decision; so indeed the hansard is very important for democracy, he emphasized.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com