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Former Clerk
to Parliament cautions against putting out wrong information
Accra, Dec. 22, GNA – A former Clerk to Parliament has said
it would be premature now to single out which of the two
major political parties would control the next parliament in
terms of who became the Majority Leader to run government
business.
“We cannot create a mathematical problem and endorse any
group as having the majority now with two parliamentary
seats still undeclared. We need to see our way clearly to
enable us come out with the right information,” Mr Rex
Owusu-Ansah said during interactions the Editorial Staff of
the Ghana News Agency (GNA ) in Accra.
Mr Owusu-Ansah, also Board Chairman of the GNA, who touched
on some nagging challenges of the next parliament, said the
journalists had to make sure they fed the public with the
right electoral information to avoid chaos.
He said the next parliament was likely to face some
challenges such as which party had the numbers to elect the
next Speaker and Majority Leader.
The former Clerk said presently, as things stood, the
Standing Orders of Parliament stated that a Majority Leader
was a Member of Parliament designated as such by a party or
parties holding the majority of seats in the House.
According to him, the two major parties could decide to go
into alliances with the smaller parities to get majority of
seats to elect a Majority Leader.
He said it was therefore important that staff of the GNA
made an informed appraisal of the complexities of the next
parliament before going public with any information to avoid
misleading the public.
Earlier, Mr Owusu-Ansah touched on preparations to usher in
the new government and legislature.
He said there were transitional issues that both the current
presidency and parliament had to deal with.
He touched on whether it would be feasible to pass a
transitional bill at this stage under a certificate of
urgency by the current parliament or wait for the new
parliament to do so to take care of the transfer of power
from one government to another.
He said it may be misconstrued if this current parliament
amended or revised the Standing Orders when it reconvened
after the run-off.
The former Clerk also had a word for the winner of the
presidential elections, saying he would have to negotiate
skilfully with the new legislature in a sober way because of
the complexities of the incoming parliament.
“Political lobbyists and acrobats will have to step in to
deal with this situation,” he added.
Mr Owusu-Ansah commended the staff of GNA for handling the
first round of the general elections professionally and
urged them to keep the good work up.
Mr Boakye-Dankwa Boadi, Supervising Chief Editor, said staff
of the Agency needed to stay on top and always sharpen their
competitiveness through such interactions.
GNA
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