Boycott parliament and NDC will repeal taxes — Ayine to NPP MPs
The Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga East, Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, has urged New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs to fulfil their promise of boycotting parliamentary sessions.
The verdict means that Parliament, which previously favoured the governing NPP as the Majority with the support of Independent Member of Parliament Andrew Amoako Asiamah, will now shift towards benefiting the opposition NDC.
The MP for Effutu indicated that his side will continue to boycott parliamentary proceedings until the Supreme Court decides on the case.
Speaking on the boycott on Friday, Mr Ayine said the NDC caucus will proceed with parliamentary proceedings from Tuesday, October 22, with or without the NPP.
He said if there are issues that require a simple majority rather than a two-thirds majority, they will proceed in the absence of the NPP members.
One of the major issues, he said they would address is abolishing the e-levy and other taxes.
“We will sit, and we have more than half the members of Parliament on our side. We will start implementing our manifesto even on Tuesday, so they [the NPP] should stay off and we will go ahead and repeal the e-levy. Article 108 says that you can use private members’ bills to repeal tax legislation such as the e-levy.
“We are working on behalf of the people of this country, we were elected to work on behalf of the people of this country so if they stay out, we have the mandate of the people to repeal e-Levy and change the fortunes of the people of this country instantaneously. So they should stay off, we will do business,” Mr Ayine said.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, declared the four parliamentary seats vacant because of the decision of four MPs to cross carpets ahead of the upcoming December 7 elections.
The affected MPs are Peter Kwakyi Ackah of Amenfi Central, Cynthia Morrison of Agona West, Kwadjo Asante of Suhum, and Andrew Asiamah of Fomena.
While Peter Kwakyi Ackah, Cynthia Morrison, and Kwadjo Asante are contesting as independent candidates, Andrew Asiamah, who was in the House as an independent MP, is contesting the seat on the ticket of the NPP in the next elections.