275-member parliament is too big – Sam Okudzeto

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Member of the Council of State Sam Okudzeto says the size of Ghana’s parliament is ‘too big’.

He told Joy News’ news magazine programme The Pulse Tuesday, keeping 275 MPs in parliament is a democratic bill too high for the taxpayer.

The lawyer with more than 50 years at the bar condemned the practice of re-sizing of constituencies saying Ghana must learn from best practice.

Pointing to the US system, the former president of the Ghana Bar Association said the size of congress does not change anytime the Americans resize their congressional districts.

“…they just adjust according to the population, they don’t increase numbers”, Mr. Okudzeto who was North Tongu MP between 1969 and 1972 said. Over here “we just increase the numbers”, he told sit-in host Ayisha Ibrahim. After independence in 1957, Ghana began its experiment with parliamentary democracy with a 104-seater parliament.

In 60 years since the chamber has more than doubled in size.

From 104 MPs under Ghana’s first President, Ghana’s parliament was 140-seater chamber under Prime Minister Dr. Busia of the second republic.

The only time it reduced its size was under the Third Republic (1979 to 1981) when it went back to the Independence figure of 104 MPs.

Since the fourth republic which began in 1992, the number of MPs have been on a relentless increase.

Ghana began under President Rawlings with 200 MPs. After 12 years, it moved to 230 MPs during the second term of President Kufuor.

The current 275 MPs was determined in the 2012 general elections.

The US with a 300-million population has 535 members of Congress. Ghana with more than 25 million ha 275 MPs.

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Source: Myjoyonline.com