Sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) who would be contesting their respective parliamentary primaries both on the tickets of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) would be supported by the leadership of Parliament during their primaries.
The Majority Leader and NPP MP for Suame, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who made the announcement just before Parliament rose on Friday for its long recess, said that experience is the backbone of the work of Parliament and, therefore, Parliament ought to support incumbent MPs to win their primaries and come back to Parliament to bring their experiences to bear on the work of the House.
“Mr Speaker, as we are all aware, our brothers in the NDC will be going for their primaries all things being equal on August 24 and for us in Parliament we have put some arrangements in place to ensure that many of our colleagues in the NDC come back triumphantly and represent their party in the general elections,” the Majority Leader said when he delivered his closing remarks just before the recess.
He said as the leadership intends to support incumbent MPs, he cannot guarantee any support for sitting MPs during the general elections, saying “Mr Speaker, after winning their primaries, I will reserve my comment when it comes to the general elections.”
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said Parliament definitely survives on experience and he would whole-heartedly support any incumbent MP to win his or her primary and wished all NDC MPs going for the August 24 primaries the best of luck.
Before Parliament rose on Friday night, it passed the supplementary appropriation on the GH¢6.3 billion supplementary budget.
Besides, Parliament passed the Energy Sector Levies (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Communication Service Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment (Amendment) Bill, 2019; and approved an $11 million loan facility for the supply of night vision, binoculars, monoculars, accessories and training of personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces.