First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Joseph Osei Owusu (Joewise) has urged Ghanaians to offer a large majority to whichever party they want to support in Parliament.
Joewise, who initially believed that the hung parliament—137-137 votes each for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and an independent lawmaker—would be good for Parliament, said that cooperation has since proven to be difficult.
On Thursday, July 20, the lawmaker declared in a press conference that “young people are in control today; they view things differently from the rest of us.” People on the back bench are never the ones to bring up these issues, even when their leaders agree to do so.
“What it indicates is that the back benches, not the leaders, are in charge at the moment in the Ghanaian Parliament. So we could predict what you would get based on the amount of backbenchers and the direction of the backbench you brought in.
Let me also urge that Ghanaians should give each group they want to support a sizable majority, he continued.
“When parliament got this close, I said that cooperation would improve. Unfortunately, I was wrong; cooperation has worsened, bringing out the worst in each of us, and we are receiving the worst performance.”
