Parliament and Our Laws (Part Two)

 

As stated in part one of this piece, Parliament is one of the principal organs of the state which is mandated to legislate, among the three arms of government.

It can also amend non entrenched provisions of the Constitution.
Entrenched provisions are amended through a referendum. Example the creation of the six new regions.Namely Oti, North-East, Savannah, Western North, Bono and Bono East.

Another important law making function of Parliament is what is known as delegated legislation such as subsidiary legislation, making of regulations for the various Ministeries, departments and agencies.

Others are Legislative, Executive and Constitutional Instruments.

Our current Parliament is a hybrid one. That is a combination of the Parliamentary system of British and the Presidential system of American. Before the acceptability of the current system, the nation has practised both systems, i.e. Presidential and Parliamentary systems in the second and third republics respectively.

In the 2nd Republic under the leadership of Professor Kofi Abrefa Busia, we had the Parliamentary System where he was elected as the Prime Minister and the leader of Government Business and having all his Ministers appointed from Parliament.

Edward Akufo-Addo was elected as a ceremonial President or head of state by an electoral college. Which means not the entire population of Ghana voted but by a few selected citizens of the country.
In the Limann regime, it was a Presidential system where all his Ministers were appointed outside the House. (Parliament).

It was a complete American system.
Both systems were promulgated in their various constitutions of the time. 1969 and 1979 Constitutions respectively.

The huge challenge with the Presidential system is that it creates a huge lacuna and non-cordiality between the Executive and the Legislature, since the two organs are independent from each other.

In one instance, the budget, government financial statement was rejected by the House (Liman Regime).

The current Finance Minister ‘s father was among the opposition members of Parliament who did the action.
Our 1992 Constitution establishes the hybrid system where it states that the majority of the Ministers should come from Parliament.

Reference to Article 78 (1) it reads “Ministers of State shall be appointed by the President with the prior approval of Parliament from among members of Parliament or persons qualified to be elected as members of Parliament, except that the majority of Ministers of State shall be appointed from among members of Parliament.”

The advantage of this hybrid system is that it gives tenure of security to the elected members since they wont lose their seats even if the President decides to axe them as Ministers of State from his cabinet.

Also, since the Minister is also a member of the House, he or she would have the advantage to share a lot with his or her colleagues in the House from both sides even have his or her bills and other legislative materials passed with ease.

The key tools for the workings of Parliament are the 1992 Constitution and the Standing Orders of the House.

The Hansard records verbatim the submissions made by the members and the Speaker or any official of the House
Votes and Proceedings report on what transpired in the House in the previous day’s sitting.

Order Paper, it lists the items to be carried out in the House in a particular day. It is like an agenda for the day.
The maze is the the authority of the House.

Note this, during the unfortunate incidents in the House, if the maze had been taken away, it would have meant that Parliament of Ghana won’t have existed again.

It means, new elections in all the 275 Constituencies according to one school of thought in Parliamentary Practice.

By Ahmed Osumanu Halid
Nima 441