Minority Chief Whip in the outgoing 7th Parliament has suggested three ways to deal with the hung 8th Parliament that is scheduled to be inaugurated early January 2021.

With no clear majority from the two leading political parties, many political analysts have predicted a difficult task for the Executive in getting important bills passed by the House.

Gazetted results show that both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) have 137 seats in Parliament, but with 275 constituencies, a party needs at least 138 seats to form a Majority and select a Speaker of Parliament.

The Speaker of Parliament performs the important task of moderating debates, making key rulings on procedure, announcing results of votes on bills, among many other tasks.

Although an independent candidate has opted to back the NPP, analysts say it does not translate into 138 seats for the NPP.

Because the NPP presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has been declared the winner of the polls, it would have been ideal for the NPP to have a Majority in Parliament.

However, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka said on PM Express, a current affairs programme on Joy News that aired on Monday, December 28, 2020, that there are only three ways to deal with the situation and ensure a smooth government for the Executive.



His three proposals are as follows:

- Both sides agree to select an apolitical person as Speaker;

- The NPP selects a member of the NDC they (NPP) are comfortable to work with as the Speaker;

- The NDC selects a member of the NPP they (NDC) are comfortable to work with as the Speaker.

“If I were in their [NPP] shoes, to be able to carry this House along, I would have gone with NPP can you look into NDC and pick somebody that you [NPP] think you can work with...

“In other words, the NPP is giving up the Speaker position to NDC to decide. So that it becomes like you have shown much goodwill that will carry the life of the Parliament instead of taking entrenched positions,” he said.

According to Mubarak Muntaka, with the current make-up of Parliament, a single bill that can take an hour to pass could take three hours or more to decide.

He admits this could drag the governance process for the Executive, but warned, “if they [NPP] decide to do what they want to do, we will do what we want to do.”