Let’s reconsider Separation of Powers under Constitution
One of the major decisions affirmed by the Extraordinary National Delegates Conference of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) held yesterday is the resolution passed by the party’s National Council that requires all serving metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) who wish to contest as parliamentary candidates where the party has sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) to resign their positions three years before the national elections.
Advertisement
This is a landmark decision that will ensure that MMDCEs who wish to remain so will continue to work as such, without any divided attention and without being seen as threats to sitting MPs. At the same time, it will enable sitting MPs to concentrate on their work as legislators and allow for the proper separation of powers at the grass-roots level.
Parliament lost some of its experienced hands in past regimes because they were not ring-fenced and lost primaries to MMDCEs and other interested persons in the constituencies.
As to whether the NPP’s decision will work in the interest of the party, we have to leave it to the next elections in 2020, as those elections will determine whether the ring-fenced MPs can retain their seats against other contestants.
Many MPs are accused of not being in touch with their constituents until it is time for elections, making MMDCEs take advantage of the situation to dislodge the MPs from ‘power’. In the opinion of the Daily Graphic, this situation comes about as a result of the so-called hybrid system of government which requires that majority of ministers be selected from Parliament.
It has led to the situation where MPs who are also ministers face the arduous task of combining the very demanding work of being an MP with the tasking duties of a minister. In such a situation, some MP/ministers are likely to perform better in one area than the other. The result is that that person, in the long run, loses the position of trust with his or her constituents and an MMDCE who is on the ground is able to dislodge the sitting MP.
The Daily Graphic thinks that the Constitution needs to be amended to strictly ensure the complete separation of powers, where MPs will stick solely to their parliamentary duties and be accountable to the people.
Many a time, if one follows debates in Parliament, one can draw the conclusion that if an MP were not a minister, he or would never support certain policies.
We urge the government to initiate moves for a second look to be taken at the current system where ministers are appointed from among MPs to ensure that Parliament will be able to properly hold the Executive to account.
The current system where MPs of the ruling party support policies of the government, even when they know deep in their hearts that those policies or decisions will not be in the country’s interest, must become a thing of the past.
We must begin to take a second look at the separation of powers under the 1992 Constitution.
