Controversy rages in parliament over next Eurobond; House fails to suspend sitting

quist

December 23, 2015 8:53 AM

Minority Mps agitated vehemently over the Speaker, Barton Oduro's decision to cancel the vote on the Eurobond. This led to several hours of suspension of proceedings.

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Parliament has failed to suspend sitting for the Christmas on Tuesday, owing to its inability to resolve an impasse over a vote count concerning Ghana's next Eurobond issue.

The Minority were up in arms because a head count was done after an initial voice vote could not determine whether the Eurobond issue should be approved by the house or not. The head count showed that 67 minority MPs voted to reject the Eurobond as against 66 MPs of the majority MPs who voted for the motion.

The votes meant that parliament had kicked against the issuance of the Eurobond. But Deputy speaker who was in charge of sitting on the day, Rt. Hon. Barton Oduro ruled out the vote saying it was an exercise in futility on the basis that the house did not constitute a chorum. According to the speaker the required minimum number of MPs were not present in the chamber to vote. Half of the total number of MPs in parliament must be present for a chorum to be achieved for a vote.

The minority in parliament were having none of that decision. They agitated until proceedings were suspended for leaders to deliberate on how to resolve the impasse.

After several hours of deliberations a decision was taken for debate over the Eurobond issue to be postponed to today, Wednesday.

The ministry of finance's next Eurobond has courted a lot of resistance from the minority side in parliament. The minority does not understand why the ministry of finance will not give the house an interest rate- threshold it is looking at acquiring the Eurobond at.

Deliberations continue today.

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