Sixth Parliament of 4th Republic closed
The Sixth Parliament of the Fourth Republic was on Friday officially closed, pending dissolution, and subsequent constitution of the Seventh Parliament of the Fourth Republic at the start of Friday midnight.
With mixed feelings from both sides of the House, outgoing members relished time sent in the House, as continuing members anticipated what the next Parliament would hold for them in their career as politicians and representatives of the people.
Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, the Speaker expressed appreciation to Almighty God and thanked the legislators, the leadership of the House and ancillary staff for their cooperation which saw the success of the outgoing Parliament.
Mr Adjaho, a former member of the House who entered the Legislature in 1993 had risen through the ranks to the position of Speaker, was also grateful to President John Dramani Mahama, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for their roles in how far he had gone in Parliamentary practice.
He however noted that posterity would be the best judge of his performance, even though he gave high marks on how he handled the House in his position as Speaker.
“I wish to say that while not by any means laying claim to perfection, I’ve discharged my duties as Speaker to the best of my ability and the choices and decisions I made were neither dictated by malice, ill will nor self-interest but rather well intended and made in utmost good faith.
“As to my performance as a Speaker, I believe I should leave it to posterity to judge. I’m, however, sure of one thing: that I’ve done my best to build on and add value to the work, programmes and projects I inherited,” Mr Adjaho said.
Mr Adjaho urged non-returning members to conduct themselves in a manner that would uphold the dignity of Parliament in which ever vocation in which the find themselves, as he also extended the best wishes to the Speaker of the Seventh Parliament of the Fourth Republic.
Outgoing Majority Leader and leader of Government Business Alban Bagbin, and his counterpart on the minority side Osei Kyei-Mensa-Bonsu expressed worry about the high attrition rate of members of Parliament.
They contended that occurrence would negate the growth of Parliament, the country’s fledgling democracy, urging political parties to do serious introspection and to work on their constituencies to check the high attrition rate in the legislature.
Both leaders also entreated outgoing members to make their expertise acquired in the course of the work in Parliament available to the House in its training programmes.
The House is expected to reconvene at midnight for dissolution of the Sixth Parliament and the constitution of the Seventh Parliament.
The inauguration of the Seventh Parliament will take place at 0005 hours. The House is all set up for the event, which would be telecast live nationwide.
Source: GNA