The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Agriculture Committee and Co-Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Policy Committee on Agriculture, Dr Isaac Yaw Opoku, has appealed to Ghanaian voters not to accord any political party a supermajority in future elections.
His appeal stems from what he described as the abuse of parliamentary numbers by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Majority.
He noted that the NDC has failed to build consensus, particularly regarding legislation, alleging that they are abusing their numerical strength to pass defective laws.
Speaking in an interview on Nyankonton Mu Nsem on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM, the lawmaker asserted that key legislation is being passed without thorough scrutiny.
He explained that the Minority Caucus had requested President John Dramani Mahama to return the newly passed Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) Bill to Parliament for broader stakeholder consultations, pointing to flawed provisions and its rushed approval under a certificate of urgency.
The caucus maintained that the bill was pushed through Parliament without adequate input from cocoa farmer associations and other essential stakeholders.
Highlighting specific flaws, Dr Opoku pointed out a variance between the promised 70 per cent of the Free on Board (FOB) world market price and the actual wording of the bill, which specifies 70 per cent of the gross FOB price realised by COCOBOD—an amount that could fluctuate depending on board contracts.
He further observed that under the new law assented to by President Mahama, COCOBOD is tasked with handling farm registrations, yet penalties for non-registration fall on farmers who lack independent control to carry out or revoke registrations.
He also faulted a clause that penalises farmers for routine farm management activities on their land, such as felling trees, without prior approval.
Dr Opoku stressed that these critical concerns ought to have been addressed, but the Majority used their numbers to disregard them, passing the bill for presidential assent.
To avert such occurrences, he advised the electorate to give political parties a comfortable, working majority rather than a supermajority.
“I will appeal to Ghanaian voters not to give any of the parties super majority. It is healthy for our democracy. Even if it is the NPP that will win the elections, don’t give us super majority. Give us a comfortable majority that the President can use in governing the country. If they had no super majority, we could have raised the issues on the floor of Parliament and they would not have passed it. They keep rushing the laws and pass them because of their numbers. We advised them against passing the law because they had not consulted all stakeholders but they refused to listen. That is why I am stressing that the voters don’t give any party super majority,” he stated.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
