Minority in parliament will suffer if it ‘punishes’ government - Political Scientist

Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana’s Department of Political Science, Dr. Isaac Owusu-Mensah has said that if the minority in the eight parliament decides to boycott Government’s policies and programmes in parliament it will be to their own detriment.

Speaking to Samuel Eshun on e.TV Ghana’s Fact Sheet, he explained: “We are in a developing country where the government is so powerful to contribute towards the development of the country and if you are an opposition party and you decide that you are going to punish the government by blocking the programs and projects of the government, you get punished for that because it is very simple, the government goes back to the constituency and tell them, ‘look we were going to construct this road or build this hospital but your MP who is representing you here blocked the chance to build the hospitals and roads for you. So if you want Government to give these things, get the MP out’”

Dr. Owusu-Mensah encouraged that for the eight parliament to work for the development of the country, both parties must learn to build a consensus.

“Looking at the fact that we have parliament whereby none of the political parties have an overwhelming majority like we have had in the past, it means that the political parties have the responsibility to learn to build a consensus that will help them build the country well.

In the past they have learnt to build consensus on issues that affects their welfare and development. They have to learn to build consensus on national issues that borders on the development of the entire country”, he added.

Out of the 275 seats in Parliament, the Electoral Commission announced that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has 137 seats with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having 136 seats and an independent candidate occupying one seat. The Sene West Constituency seat result is still outstanding.