Finance Minister Ofori Atta Survives Parliamentary Vote of Censure as Majority Stages a Walkout
“You want us to follow you on this misadventure? Mr. Speaker, like Pontius Pilate, we wash our hands off it,” the Majority Leader indicated while he led his Group out of the House.
The censure motion against the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, has been lost in a one-sided secret ballot in Parliament as the Majority Group staged a walkout.
Just at the brink of the voting process to adopt the report of the Ad hoc Committee to investigate the allegations against the Finance Minister and the motion on the vote of censure itself after the debate, the Majority Group led by the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, walked out of the House.
“You want us to follow you on this misadventure? Mr. Speaker, like Pontius Pilate, we wash our hands off it,” the Majority Leader indicated while he led his Group out of the House.
The Minority Group in Ghana’s Parliament led by its leader, Haruna Iddrisu, moved a motion on the Floor for the House to pass a vote of censure against the Minister on some 7 grounds it outlined including the mismanagement of the Ghanaian economy among others.
Fully aware of the fact that the Minority Group by itself, could not satisfy the Constitutional injunction of a 2/3 majority required for the motion to succeed, extended an invitation to the Majority Group to join the efforts to get rid of the Minister.
The request was made by the Minority Leader on the Floor following a press conference held by some MPs in the Majority Group who had expressed no confidence in the Finance Minister and had called on the President to dismiss him.
After the counting of the ballot papers, the Speaker announced that 136 members voted for the motion while there was no vote against the motion in the absence of the Majority Group.
Even though all the Members of Parliament from the Minority Group who were present voted for the censure motion against Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, it failed to meet the 183 Constitutional threshold of a 2/3 majority votes of the 275-member Parliament required to get the motion through.
For the meantime, the Finance Minister has survived a total rejection by both sides of the House. However, he still carries the baggage of a vote of no confidence by the other half of the House in the hanged Parliament of equal numbers of seats of 137 MPs on each side and one independent candidate.
With this vote of no confidence from the Minority side, it is envisaged that any business on the Floor coming from the outfit of the Finance Minister may face a lot of resistance from the Minority Group going forward.
Source: Clement Akoloh||ghanaiannews.ca
