The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has organized a constitution review workshop for political party leaders in the country and from other African countries.
The workshop was held at the Alisa Hotel in Accra on Wednesday July 8 to thrash out issues about the "Winner-takes All" mantra in African's political climate.
In Ghana, the "Winner-takes All" (WTA) syndrome seems to cut across all political parties as the government in power has the upper hand in appointing cabinet members and other officials to high offices.
During the event, stakeholders shared experiences and made some recommendations to enhance good governance system in Africa.
Several concerns were raised during the forum and key among them was the issue of national development.
Stakeholders agreed that there should be a proper national development planning to check the WTA phenomenon.
Also, a proposal was made to reduce the 275 Parliamentary seats in Ghana to 200 with the seats re-demarcated and keenly contested on partisan basis.
The gathering further called for gender equality in the legislative house and so, proposed that the remaining 75 seats be given to marginalized groups such as women.
The Institute further noted that every citizen should be given equal opportunity to air their views in the governance of the country.
2012 Running mate of the Progressive People's Party (PPP), Eva Lokko speaking at the function also stressed that as part of measures to curb the WTA, Members of Parliament (MPs) should not hold ministerial appointments.
To her, due to the dual roles that MPs play in Parliament, there is a high level of oversight of the Executive regarding their duties to the nation.
However, founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who was also present at the function in an interview withPeacefmonline.com believed MPs can execute their ministerial duties effectively.
He disagreed with the notion that MPs should not be appointed into the Executive arm of government.
“This business of oversight of the executive is illusory. It does not exist. Why because under our present circumstance, you cannot fashion a constitution and a situation out of nowhere. The people that we have now if NPP or NDC, there’s a bill that comes in from government; it will be passed…So, rarely what the government of the day wants is what they want to implement their programmes and policies and for that matter, what is being brought to Parliament is in furtherance of that particular agenda.
“If that is the case then who is an MP of that particular party to say I am against him…so, this business of talking about so-called oversight responsibility or what have you is illusory. That’s why I keep saying that we should have a situation whereby people who make the promises are the ones who deliver.”
A delegation from Uganda also called for proportional representation of women in governance.
The IEA organized a roundtable discussion with various political leaders from Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Kenya among other dignitaries. |
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