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Member of Parliament for Bia East Constituency in the Bono Region, Hon. Richard Acheampong has indicated that the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has more advantage in the 8th Parliament than the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He explained that the opposition side is always in Parliament and as none of its members will be made ministers and serve on boards in the Akufo-Addo government the NDC Mps are in an advantage position to decide on any bill that will come from the Cabinet due to their number in Parliament.

“The opposition side in parliament has more advantage because the opposition side is always in Parliament. The opposition members will not be made ministers or serve on any board and so they are always in parliament”, he argued.

Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Hon. Acheampong claimed that the ruling NPP government has a huge challenge in having the numbers required to push their bills through as many of the NPP MPs will be working in Ministries and also will have to travel to sign contracts and cut sod to commission projects.

“It is the ruling government members in parliament who have the problem because they will be working in Ministry and travel to sign contract and cut sod to commission project and so they will not get their numbers in Parliament”, he claimed.

He entreated the ruling NPP government especially their Parliamentarians to initiate the move to work with the Minority Group in Parliament as the time has come to build consensus and do away with partisan politics as they don’t have the number in Parliament to play politics.

“The time has come for all of us to work together. The initiative should come from the government side; they have to reach out to the opposition side to build consensus because partisan politics at this time will not help the country because they don’t have the numbers to do so”, he mentioned.

“Whether the independent candidate is part of the NPP or not, you don’t have the numbers to make decisions in Parliament and push your bills through. For instance, if they bring a bill to parliament and think that with their number they can push the bill through, what if the Speaker does not preside and any of the Deputies presides over the House, automatically the NPP will short of one vote because the Deputies are from the NPP and they cannot vote as they preside”.

“Whatever it is, the NPP don’t have the numbers and so we have to work together. The best thing is that all of us must work together; no big grammar or mathematical arrangement can explain anything or favour anyone; the button line is that we have to work together and build consensus. Whether groupings or majority, it is just semantics and it cannot change anything; the most important thing is to work together and help build this our nation”, he insisted.