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General News of Tuesday, 18 July 2023

Source: mynewsgh.com

NDC MPs’ parliamentary boycott wrong precedence for democracy – Dan Botwe

Dan Botwe, Minister of Local Government, Decentralization, and Rural Development Dan Botwe, Minister of Local Government, Decentralization, and Rural Development

The National Democratic Congress(NDC) MPs have been told their continuous boycott of parliament for the courts in solidarity with their Assin North Colleague, James Gyekye Quayson is setting the wrong precedence in the country.

The MPs on the side of the minority are unhappy with what they claim is persecution and not prosecution of their colleague who has been accused of dual citizenship ahead of the 2020 general elections.

Responding to the incessant boycotts of the NDC MPs, lawmaker for Okere Dan Botwe said what the opposition is doing is impacting democracy in a wrong way.

He maintains they are just doing something to energize the base of their party.

“I have been a General Secretary of a party before and I understand what the NDC MPs in parliament are doing. Sometimes when you are in opposition you do all kinds of things to ginger and inspire your party folks. I know the tactics they are trying to play and I understand that”

“But when you do something, you are just setting a precedence that could impact Ghana’s democracy in future. We have three arms of government, the executives that the president forms and controls, then parliament where we are and the judiciary that directs the laws.

"We always talk about separation of powers and we must respect the roles of each, to help foster the growth and development of our democracy” he said on Kumasi-based Pure Fm monitored by MyNewsGh.com.

“But yes, everybody can go to court, no one has said anywhere or there is no law that suggests if you are a member of parliament and you flout the law you can’t be taken to court, so if you as an MP and you have a case to answer in the courts what’s wrong with that?

"The law will have to work as it’s supposed to work, so if you say your colleague MP is been taken to court and that you will not show up in parliament but rather follow him to court, I just don’t understand this”, he wondered.