CSOs committed to ensuring success of parliamentary democracy – CDD

The Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) says civil society organisations (CSOs) are committed to ensuring the success of Ghana’s parliamentary democracy through collaboration and healthy engagements.

Mr Paul Aborampah Mensah, Programmes Manager, CDD Ghana, in a solidarity message at the launch of the 30th Anniversary of Ghana’s Parliamentary Democracy in Accra, said prior to the Fourth Republic, Parliament was a branch of Government with the most disrupted life in Ghana’s constitutional and political history.
“It was a victim of the coups d’etat of February 1966, January 1972, and December 1981.”

He said Parliament resumed its life in the Fourth Republic on a less than optimistic note, as the decision of the New Patriotic Party to boycott the December 1992 parliamentary elections robbed the first Parliament of an official opposition party.

He noted that in January 1997, with the arrival of a fully representative and competitive chamber, Parliament began to deepen its institutional foundations and assumed its proper role as a multi-party chamber reflecting the diverse and divergent political party affiliations and identities within the Ghanaian polity.

Mr Mensah said over the course of the Fourth Republic, Parliament, in keeping with its rightful role as the People’s Assembly and, for that matter, the most popularly accessible and representative branch of Government, had developed and enjoyed a productive working relationship with Civil Society.

“CSOs have helped to inform and educate the Ghanaian public about the business and work of Parliament, supported the Parliamentary Service and successive classes of Members of Parliament (MPs) to build capacities relevant to their multiple mandates and functions of law making, oversight and representation,” he said.

“CSOs work closely with and supply various knowledge products to MPs and committees of Parliament to help improve the quality of proposed legislation.”

Mr Mensah said those organisations had also undertaken periodic assessments of the performance of MPs and Parliament itself.

That last activity of CSOs had not always been welcomed by MPs or Parliament, he said, but those organisations and Parliament had come to appreciate that occasional respectful disagreement was an inevitable part of their engagement.

“These engagements are healthy for the progressive evolution of the nation’s parliamentary democracy,” he said.

“Mr Speaker, Parliament indeed, has come a long way in these last thirty years. The Fourth Republican Parliament is the first and only Parliament in our history to reach adulthood.”

Mr Mensah said the people of Ghana still looked up to Parliament to keep oversight and checks-and-balances of the Executive, protect the public purse, and diligently scrutinise proposed legislation and international contracts and agreements.

In short, a substantial part of the burden of making the nation’s democracy work for the people rests on the shoulders of Parliament.

The event, chaired by Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, was on the theme; “The Fourth Republic: The Journey Thus Far”.

Saturday, 7th January, 2023, was exactly 30 years since the Constitution of the Fourth Republic of Ghana came into force.