2017 budget: MPs fly placards despite ban by leadership

Members of Parliament on Thursday, March 2, breached their own regulations over the use of placards in the House.  The Leadership of Ghana’s Parliament on Friday, February 24,2017  banned the use of placards by members during the budget presentation.


Making a case for the ban, Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu argued that the development as has been in the past, casts the image of the legislature in a bad light.

The Member of Parliament for Suame also reprimanded the minority for their behavior during the president’s state of the nation address on Tuesday.
Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu in supporting the proposal, called on the majority to conduct themselves well in future given that that side of the House started singing during the state of the nation address by the President.

However, MPs on the minority side could not hold themselves to the commitment as they flashed placards with the inscription “419 budget”, indicative of their disappointment in the presentation by Finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta.

According to former deputy finance minister Cassiel Ato Forson, the budget is deceptive and populist. He told Starr News Ghanaians “must brace up for hard times ahead”.


source:starrfmonline.com