Category: General

A month long debate to justify why Ghanaian youth should be included in the democratic process has started in universities across the country and would end 10th of October 2019.

The competitive debate organized by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy in collaboration with the Public Affairs Department of Ghana’s Parliament, under a United Kingdom Government initiative called Commonwealth Partnership for Democracy is to create awareness and build understanding of Parliamentary democracy among the students’ Parliaments.

In a statement signed by the country director of Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Dr. David Appiah, he noted that Ghana had evolved in its democratic practice but young people who form fifty-seven percent (57%) of the population are still left out and lack knowledge on the key governance process.

“Sustainable good governance, development and democracy cannot materialize at a country level without the active participation of the youth, who make the bulk of Ghana’s population. This initiative also focuses on the youth’s acquisition of adequate skills towards their political aspiration and working on personal development before getting politically affiliated”.

He further revealed that the university students will also be engaged in quiz competitions and be exposed to a video-documentary which cover young Members of Parliament in Ghana and the role they play in governance.
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The Commonwealth Partnership for Democracy works with Parliaments in fifteen (15) Commonwealth Member States across Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia to improve representation of women, young people, people with disabilities and advancing inclusive and accountable democracies in the Commonwealth.

In Ghana, WFD is promoting women in leadership and inclusion at the same time working to improve transparency and accountability in the Parliament of Ghana through improving access to research.

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A leading member of the cluster of Civil Societies (CSOs) on Affirmative Action decentralization and citizen participation, Edith Chidi has said passage of the Bill would strengthen structures of political parties with more women actively involved.

According to her more women would be pushed into politics with support from the base when there is a legal framework to support that.

“Affirmative Action Bill passage is long overdue, those of us supporting the Bill belong to over sixty three Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)”, she disclosed.

Mrs. Edith Chidi lamented over the disparity on women representation in Parliament and added that in the recent National Democratic Congress (NDC) primaries, out of one hundred and fifty-seven, only twenty seven women were elected as Parliamentary candidates.

She made this remarks in an interview when the CSOs presented a petition to the Gender Children and Social Protection Ministry and Parliament for the Affirmative Action Bill to be fast tracked from the sponsoring Ministry to Cabinet for onwards delivery to Parliament.

As to what next after the group on Affirmative Action walk, she noted that the group is expecting the sponsoring Ministry to present the Bill to Cabinet by September; and October when Parliament resumes the Bill should be in the House and pass before the end of the year.

Again the group was disappointed that after going back and forth on their Affirmative Action walk with the Gender Minister given her endorsement, she was not in the office to receive the petition and had to be taken by the Chief Director, Rev. Comfort Asare.

On the absence of the Minister to receive the petition, she said, “I feel so empowered that a Minister would feel threatened by sixty-three CSOs and run away from us”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Rt. Honorable Moustapha Cisse Lo, has said the issue of irregular migration is a very burning issue in the West African sub-region.

According to the Speaker the issue can be halted through strengthening of the private sector.

He made this remarks during a three day Parliamentary sensitization forum on Migration in the sub-region in Niamey, Republic of Niger.

Leaders of the West African sub-region were urged to play their roles in creating the best conditions for youths in order to halt the issues of irregular migration.

Rt. Honorable Cisse Lo recounted that in 2018, the sub-regional legislative body was in Agadez on a mission to meet with immigrants and refugees including their authorities and met with the Speaker of the Nigerian’s Parliament and their President, who suggested a forum on the issue and to submit conclusion to the ECOWAS Authorities of Heads of States and Government.

The Speaker further noted that before the end of the life span of the fourth Legislature of ECOWAS, he would want the issue to be resolved, as the sub-regional legislative body would do everything possible at a very steady pace, to conclude the work and help the West African populace.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

The Coalition on the Right to Information, Ghana (RTI Coalition) and its collaborators have formed a thirteen (13) member technical committee known as the Civil Society of RTI implementation, which began work from Thursday 8th of August 2019.

These committees would collaborate with key stakeholders to get Ghana ready for effective implementation of the RTI Act from January 2020.

The CSOs said they recognise the road map set out by the Ministry of Information for a full roll out of the law next year.

In an interview, the CSOs committee spokesperson, Sammy Obeng noted that the committee would complement the efforts of the Ministry and all other stakeholders to ensure that the measures planned for implementation are actually achieved.

As part of its activities the committee has developed a strategic plan to guide the RTI coalitions support for the effective implementation of the Act.

The following under listed persons form the membership of the implementation committee; Jeremiah Sam programmes, Manager Penlusbytes Chairperson; Gloria Hiadzi, Vice Chair; and Esther Ahulu, Secretary.

Other members are Affail Money, Akoto Ampaw, Beauty Emefa Narteh, Collins Osei, Elvis Darko, Kojo Asante, Linda Ofori-Kwafo, Mina Mensah, Naa Ayele Sekyere and Ugonna Ukaigwe.

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The Minority members on the Finance Committee have urged government officials of the Akufo-Addo led administration who took huge sums of loans for their 2016 elections leading to the collapse of local banks to refund the money.

According to the Minority, they have information on the government officials of the current administration who had taken those huge sums of money and they should do the honorable thing.
Monies should be paid back to the receiver so that depositors could be paid promptly, member of the Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo made this known at a press conference he address in Parliament House.

In a question and answer section, the Bolgatanga Central lawmaker told Ghanamps.com that it is not for the Minority to mention the names of the NPP officials, they should rather do the needful.

“At a point in time if the names would have to come out they would come out but it is not for us to put the names out; Ghanaians are struggling to come to terms with how the badly planned and poorly implementation of a minimum capital regime has virtually destroyed Ghana’s financial sector”, he lamented.

He further pointed out that, there are unanswered questions regarding how government spent twenty-three billion cedis of tax payers monies just to collapse financial institutions and create massive unemployment and turned entrepreneurs into idle hands.

The chaotic and often self-inflicting posturing of the Central Bank in handling the banking sector reforms showed a complete lack of directions and focus in the whole exercise.

Bank of Ghana (BOG) did not seem to have a clear strategic blueprint and implementation outcomes of the various elements of the financial sector. A basic question such as what type of financial system were they intended to achieve and the measurable indicators of implantation outcomes was not considered.

Savings and Loans Companies (S&L) did not know what to expect, except threats of collapse resulting in panic withdrawals. To date Rural and Community Banks who suffered unnecessary panic withdrawals sparked by the reckless comments of the Governor of the BOG do not know what to expect. Saving and Loans were collapsed before the issues of minimum capital and recovery plans were contemplated by the BOG.

The Ghanaian Tax Payer  would have been spared the high cost of this chaotic reforms if BOG had listened and followed the reform program initiated by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Governor had not been a needless talkative that caused panic and crushed confidence in the financial sector.

“Why would a government be ready to borrow GHc 14 billion to close down banks and further GHc 7 billion to shut Microfinance companies, but was not ready to use a fraction of this amount to pay off government debts to contractors, which largely accounted for the slide into insolvency in several cases of the collapsed banks?”

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

The Functional Executive Committee (FEC) of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has given the Minority Chief Whip the green light to contest the 2020 Parliamentary election in Asawase unopposed.

His contender Masawudu Mubarick had been declared disqualified to contest on the ticket of the party.
This follows the acceptance of the decision of the report of the Committee on settlement of outstanding disputes.

The committee is headed by former Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament Rt. Honorable Edward Doe Adjaho, whose report was presented to (FEC) at a meeting on Tuesday the 3rd of September, 2019.

The Doe Adjaho Committee was established to handle petitions emanating from the vetting process leading to the selection of Parliamentary candidates of the party in the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Three of the petitions from the aggrieved aspirants including Masawudu were referred to the committee.
While two of the petitions relating to Asunafo South and Banda constituencies were amicably settled, the other aspirant at Asawase was disqualified. By this decision Muntaka Mubarak stands elected as the Parliamentary Candidate of the NDC in Asawase Constituency.

This was contained in a press release signed by General Secretary of the Party Johnson Aseidu Nketiah.

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Functional Executive Committee (FEC) of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has given clearance for the conduct of Parliamentary primary elections in four constituencies on Saturday, 31st August, 2019.

They are Assin South Constituency and Mfantsiman in the Central Region, Fanteakwa North in the Eastern Region and lastly Elembelle Constituency in the Western Region.

This was contained in a press release signed by General Secretary of the Party Johnson Aseidu Nketia.

At a press conference organized late last week, by the scribe of the party on preparation towards the August 24th primaries he made known to journalists in Accra because there were unresolved issues with some constituencies.

“Elections would not be held in those constituencies until they are cleared by a committee set up to resolve grievances arising out of vetting in constituencies”.

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Chairman of the Opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo has urged all losing aspirants in the August 24, 2019 Parliamentary primaries to support candidates elected ahead of the 2020 primaries.

According to the chairman, as losing candidates in the Presidential primaries throw their weight behind John Mahama and offered their support and loyalty going into the 2020 general elections, “the not-so-lucky aspirants in the Parliamentary primaries should also display their loyalty and commitment in a similar manner for we have only one adversary, the NPP, and we need to focus all our energies on the effort  to get the people of Ghana to elect us to replace the confused and clueless President Akufo-Addo and his government”.

Mr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo made this known in an interview when he was commenting on the outcome of the August 24, 2019 primaries of the party.

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