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The deputy majority leader in parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has called for the amendment of article 93 of the constitution to stop the unnecessary expansion in the number of seats in parliament.
He said the amended article will impose restrictions to help ease the pressure on the country’s public purse.
He said “article 93 puts an upper limit on the number of members of parliament (MPs) that must be elected each year.
“It is not encouraging that a small country like Ghana, with its many financial problems, has 275 MPs, while Australia with its financial muscles has 151 MPs and 76 senators.”
The deputy majority leader said this at this year’s Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) law conference in Accra.
Afenyo-Markin said “we still need to look at the number of seats we have in parliament. If we give the opportunity to the Electoral Commission, I am sure they will look at our population and say they want to create about 30 more, but in my view, they are not healthy.”
Qualification as MP
He called for the review of article 94 of the constitution, making postsecondary education, which might not be tertiary, the minimum qualification for an individual to enter parliament.
That is aimed at ensuring that those who are voted into parliament have the relevant capacity to engage in meaningful debate.
He also called for the amendment of article 78 of the constitution, which affects the parliament’s capacity to properly scrutinise its duty.
Article 78(1) of the constitution requires the president to nominates majority of the ministers of state from parliament. Afenyo-Markin believes that this provision should be reviewed.
He said the provision unnecessarily encourages intrusion from the executive in parliament. This makes it impossible for MPs who become ministers to criticize the policies and actions of the government in which they serve as ministers.
It also encourages non-minister MPs to refrain from criticising the government out of the fear that they might be overlooked during subsequent nominations of ministers of state.
He said “if we review the provision critically, it will help MPs assert themselves and have what it takes to demonstrate that you are indeed representing the people.
“Some of the MPs who accepted deputy ministerial positions have expressed a lot of regret. A chairman of a committee in parliament is better than a deputy minister in terms of learning and capacity building.”
Upper chamber
He said the council of state, established by the authority of article 89 of the constitution should be converted into an upper chamber of parliament through an amendment of the same provision.
He stated that it will make the provision a better way to engage in a productive use of the experience of the elderly statesmen who occupy seats on the council of state.
Afenyo-Markin said “Ghana needs an upper chamber known as the house of elders, whose election shall be non-partisan, with the primary role of moderating the current parliamentary excesses and extreme partisanship.”
Samuel Kwaku Bonsu, the rector of GIMPA, said the conference was to provide a platform for discussions relating to the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution, 33 years after its adoption by the citizenry.
Kwaku Agyeman-Budu, the dean of the faculty of law at GIMPA, said the conference is a biennial event introduced in 2016 to provide a collegial platform for the discussion of topical national and international issues and propose solutions.
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