“Our mourning clothes to Parliament is to mourn democracy’

Accra, Feb.8, - The Minority in Parliament has said the reason for wearing mourning clothes to the State of the Nation Address is to mourn the country’s democracy, which is under threat from the Majority.

According to the Minority, the Majority was increasingly becoming intolerant of the Minority’s views and that the Speaker, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, is presiding over what they described as "democratic tyranny".

Mr James Klutse Avedzi, the Deputy Minority Leader, speaking to the media after President Akufo-Addo’s State of the Nation Address, said the relationship between the Minority and the Majority has deteriorated over the Cash-for-Seat Report, which was laid in the House on Tuesday.

The Minority walked out of the Chamber protesting that the final report did not include the views of its members on the Cash-for-Seat Committee.

When the House rose to sing the National Anthem, Members of the Minority identified with some of the words, precisely the stanza: “And Help Us to Resist Oppressors Rule with all Our Will and Might Forever More,” to register their displeasure at the treatment from the Majority.

They expressed their love for the words of this stanza as they repeated it several times even after the song had ended.  

Mr Avedzi said the Majority’s stance did not portend well for Ghana’s democracy in the future.

“In Parliamentary Democracy, the Minority would have their say, the Majority would have their way. If you deny the Minority their say, then democracy is at risk,” he added.

He said the “mourning clothes” by the Minority was to send a signal to the President, the Speaker and the whole world that all was not well.

“If you don’t want my view on the floor of Parliament, if you don’t want my view to be captured in a Committee’s report of which  I am a member, then we are heading towards a problem” he said.

Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin South, in his reaction, said the Minority’s lack of cooperation with the Majority for Parliamentary duties did not augur well for the country’s democracy.

He said the Minority had an equal opportunity to have their views heard but failed to cooperate with the Majority.

GNA