Parliament reconvenes today

Page 16, October 7, 2008
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

PARLIAMENT reconvenes today for the third meeting of the last session of the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.
The meeting is expected to break on November 7, 2008 to enable Members of Parliament (MPs) have enough time to prepare for the forthcoming general elections.
The House will reconvene on January 6, 2009 for the dissolution of the Fourth Parliament to pave way for beginning of the Fifth Parliament on January 7, 2009.
Ten new bills are scheduled to be placed before the House during the period while bills which are currently before the various committees of the House, papers and loan agreements are also expected to be considered.
The new bills include the Internal Revenue (Registration of Businesses) (Amendment) Bill, Institute of Marketing Bill, Trade Mark (Amendment) Bill, Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill, Electoral Commission (Amendment) Bill, Internal Revenue (Amendment) Bill, Northern Development Fund Bill and the Parliamentary Service (Amendment) Bill, among others.
According to the Director of Public Affairs of Parliament, Mr Jones Kugblenu, the third meeting of the last session of the Fourth Parliament is expected to be hectic since most MPs would be torn between their bid to maintain their seats and the work of the House.
He said, however that since that was the first time in the history of Parliament, the MPs would be able to combine their parliamentary duties and electoral campaigns to make the meeting a success,
“The MPs know the rules and regulations of the House and I hope that as honourable members, they will abide by them to bring the sitting to a successful end to crown the successes chalked up during the Fourth Parliament”, he said.
Some MPs who spoke to the Daily Graphic said they were prepared to meet challenges that would confront them during the meeting.
The NDC MP for Ho East, Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, said that although most of the MPs were in the race to maintain their seats, that would not prevent them from taking part in the business of the House.
She stated that most of the MPs were expected to go back to their constituencies during the second week of the meeting to file their nominations for the forthcoming elections and expressed the hope that they would rush back to Accra to continue with the business in the House.
For his part, the NPP MP for Heman Lower Denkyira, Reverend Ben Donkor, said “I am expecting a busy meeting. It will not be easy for us to combine our campaigns with the business of the House, but with determination and dedication, we will succeed”.
He, however, advised the executive not to wait till the last week of the meeting before bringing loan and other agreements to the House for ratification since that would not augur well for a successful meeting.