The General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu says it is naïve on the part of the members of the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to say that the current 8th Parliament is hung due to both sides having 137 seats apiece.
“Whoever said that we have a hung parliament does not know the law. If anyone says that we don’t have a majority and a minority in Parliament, the person does not know what he is talking about,” he chided.
Speaking on Okay FM, the NPP Chief Scribe said that the odd number of 275-member parliament creates a clear distinction of majority caucus and minority caucus as stated in the Standing Orders of Parliament even though the Constitution knows there are more than two parties in the country.
“The constitution knows that we don’t have only two parties but that is how the Standing Orders of Parliament is, to have a majority caucus and a minority caucus, and so the other party or the independent candidate does not have a seat in parliament and so they decide to either join the majority caucus or the minority caucus,” he explained.
He reiterated that the candidate from the third party or the independent candidate in Parliament will have to join one side of the caucus in the House to form a majority caucus as both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are even in number.
“If the other party or independent candidate joins the majority caucus, it means that they are part of the majority and if they decide to join the minority caucus then they are part of the minority in parliament. Right now with the 137 numbers for both sides, if the independent candidate by Friday decides to join the NPP, then the NPP will be the majority in parliament; there is nothing like hung parliament,” he explained.
“…Parliament is not hung and whoever says that does not know what he is saying,” he stressed.