Majority Leader Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin is predicting that a number of MPs belonging to the incoming NDC administration will become redundant.
He says the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) quest to run a lean administration will amount to many of their Members of Parliament being sidelined.
John Dramani Mahama, unlike President Akufo-Addo who appointed 120 ministers, promised to run a lean administration by cutting the number of ministers by half, including their deputies.
With 60 ministers, the Member of Parliament for Effutu says most of the NDC legislators will become idle looking at the party’s overwhelming two-third majority.
The lawmaker says he foresees just about 35 to 40 of the NDC MPs being appointed to ministerial roles, with an approximate 140 MPs being idle. This is because the NDC now commands over 180 seats in the next Parliament.
He notes the remaining MPs will become largely irrelevant in the legislative process, as they may not have the roles or responsibilities they initially anticipated.
“NDC has an overwhelming majority in parliament, they have promised a lean government. I can foresee a lot of their MPs being redundant. They promised 60 ministers, and out of that, some will have to come from Parliament because of the constitutional custom,” he said on JoyNews Wednesday, December 17, 2024.
“So they are going to have about 35 or a maximum of 40 MPs who will be ministers and deputy ministers if you take that out of their over 170 seats, they will have 140 MPs, who will be redundant in parliament and all they would have to do is come to parliament to do ‘yeeye‘ (hear hear)” he remarked.
Afenyo-Markin also indicated that he anticipates an NDC majority with so much tension since many of the MPs will not get the needed means to meet the demands of their constituents due to limited resources at their disposal.
Recounting what the current majority faced, he said it got to a time where it became difficult for their MPs to get to Parliament and expects same to happen with the incoming majority.
“These MPs will have demands over their constituents and they will be expected to go to their constituencies. The money will not be there because only a few have had, ministerial appointments and that is where their wars will start.
“We faced similar problems. It got to a point where it was very difficult to get our members into the chamber, where Mr speaker would say “Leader look behind you. Very soon I will tell their majority leader to look behind him, though you have 170 plus but your MPs will not be there,” he averred.
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