The Member of Parliament (MP) for Sekondi, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, has lauded his colleague MPs and the leadership of the House after Ghana’s Parliament was adjudged the best Open Parliament in Africa.

Speaking on the floor of Parliament, on Tuesday, December 20, 2022, Egyapa Mercer said that the feat chalked by the Parliament of Ghana is refreshing given the fact that the House has been heavily criticized by Ghanaians.

“Especially because, Speaker, I’m sure as members are aware we are almost always at the receiving end of public criticism. This Parliament especially receives its share of banter from our media men and civil society organisations,” he said.

The Parliament of Ghana was rated the best Open Parliament in Africa in 2022, according to the Open Parliament Index (OPI) which was launched in July 2022.

The Open Parliament Index is conducted once every two years and it is measured using three criteria including; transparency, civic participation and public accountability to assess Parliaments across Africa .

The Member of Parliament for Ho West, Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, who gave detail of the index, said that Ghana beat the Parliaments of Cape Verde and Sierra Leone to the top position with the two countries taking the 2nd and 3rd positions respectively.

“With an overall score of 63.03 percent, (Ghana) beat its closest rival, Cape Verde which scored 61.86 percent and Sierra Leone that scored 57.9 percent.

“According to the report, Ghana scored lowest on public accountability with 14.32 percent out of 30 percent while we scored highest in the transparency category with 27.71 percent out of 35 percent allotted to that category.

“It scored 21 percent for civic participation out of 35 percent total score for that area,” the MP said.

Watch the second part of Elvis Afriyie Ankrah's interview on GhanaWeb TV below:





Also watch the nomination for the GhanaWeb Excellence Awards Youth Edition below:



IB/WA