Empty Parliament forces adjournment after 30 minutes

Ghana’s Parliament sat for just 30 minutes a day after it reconvened following serious absenteeism on the side of the Majority.

Starr News’ Kobby Gomez-Mensah reported that the Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho had to adjourn after half an hour “due to the absence of ministers and committee chairmen.”

The majority leader had to push for an adjournment “because the situation was beyond his control.”

Gomez-Mensah said the minority were unhappy about the development.

“Ministers and others have been invited and they have not appeared. They are not taking the business of the House seriously. The problem is that the whole government is comatose. We are ready to do business but the government is not ready,” Isaac Osei, the minority MP for Subin, told Starr News.

It is believed the majority side boycotted today’s sitting due to the impending National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary primaries on November 7.

“The primaries is not over. We’re still negotiating with some chairpersons to negotiate sittings. It is difficult to tell MPs to abandon campaign. We have to strike a balance,” Alhaji Muntaka told Accra-based Joy FM.

“We’re likely to have sitting tomorrow. We’ll negotiate. Once the primaries is over we’ll get to normalcy. We’ll not be able to abandon government business completely.”

The House resumes sitting Thursday.