Minister-designate for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, has reiterated his opposition to the practice of organising primaries to elect parliamentary candidates every four years.
The practice, he said, is to be blamed for the high attrition rate of experienced Members of Parliament, which is adversely affecting the work of the legislature.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, also a Member of Parliament for Suame, was responding to a question of how he would help to end the high attrition rate of MPs when he appeared before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Friday for vetting.
According to him, though Article 55 (5) of the 1992 Constitution enjoined political parties to comply with democratic principles it did not necessarily mean that parliamentary candidates should be chosen through elections.
He indicated that parliamentary candidates could be chosen through popular acclamation and appointments, which would help in maintaining experienced MPs in the legislative house.
The Majority Leader argued that in some developed democracies, political parties set up committees after the end of the tenure of MPs and assess their performances, and then propose that MPs who distinguished themselves continue without going through any elections.
The Suame legislator attributed the loss of experienced MPs to the monetisation of politics in Ghana, which he described as a “reality,” and advised political parties to confront the issue to stem the tide.
“Not until the parties confront this reality and realised the need to make reforms with regard to the mode of choosing parliamentary candidates, the high attrition rate of MPs would go on unabated.”
“Mr. Chairman, there are other considerations other than the performance of an MP that comes into play in electing parliamentary candidates and this results in MPs losing their seats,” he explained.
He alluded to some experienced MPs including Hon Ben Abdallah Bandah and Inusah Fuseini who were members of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Joseph Yieleh Chireh, former MP for Wa West and Former Chairman of the Finance Committee and Dr Mike Asibey Yeboah, who lost their seats due to frustrations in the primaries.
Responding to a question of whether there should be a review of the 1992 Constitution, Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said there should be a holistic review of the Constitution because after operating it for almost three decades, there are some provisions that lacked clarity and are confusing, hence the need to review it holistically.
With regard to the widely held perception that MPs are development agents and not just legislators, Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said although MPs are supposed to be legislators, however, because of the huge electoral promises some parliamentary candidates make, the constituents tend to hold them accountable for those promises.
He advised MPs to be cautious with the kind of promises they make during elections since their Common Fund allocations allowed them to undertake only ‘patch up’ projects and not major development projects.
He proposed a discussion on what could be done to retain such MPs to maintain the quality of legislators in the House.
He advised his colleagues not to portray themselves as agents of development at the grassroots, adding: “Let us learn useful lessons from our conduct.”
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu noted that chief executives of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies are not hounded for developmental projects, but when MPs go to solicit votes, the people asked them if they are aware of their challenges.
He argued further that the MPs Common Fund, on which they fell to support development projects in their communities, is not enough.
Source: GNA
