Parliament to end life soon

The Second Parliament of the Fourth Republic began the final countdown to end its life on Tuesday as losers and victors shared jokes and pleasantries.

Before proceedings began to usher in the last week, leading members of the NDC hugged their NPP colleagues, teasing each other on their misfortunes and "naivety" in leading the country respectively.

The NDC lost 40 seats, thus scaling down their strength to 92 with the NPP, which has only a week to spend on the minority bench, swelled their number from 61 to 99. The Convention People's Party (CPP) retained only one seat with the PNC making a decent jump from one to three, while four independent members won places in the next Parliament.

Members will largely bother themselves with the transitional process and their end of service packages during this week. It is expected that the next Parliament will be more vibrant as the shift in the power scale will not make any party too strong to have its way on the floor of the house. The next Parliament will be inaugurated on January 7, 2001