https://www.myjoyonline.com/osei-kyei-mensah-refuses-to-comment-on-whether-fomena-mp-will-be-admitted-to-parliament-today/-------https://www.myjoyonline.com/osei-kyei-mensah-refuses-to-comment-on-whether-fomena-mp-will-be-admitted-to-parliament-today/

The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has refrained from commenting on whether or not the Member of Parliament for Fomena who was sacked from Parliament would be welcomed back to Parliament by the NPP when sitting resumes Monday.

In an interview on Accra based radio station, Oman FM, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs indicated that as “it was a directive given by the Speaker [of Parliament]" to expel Mr Amoako Asiamah from the House, should the Speaker wish to reverse his earlier decision, certain procedures will need to be followed.

Before Parliament went on recess ahead of the December 7, 2020 general elections, the Speaker of Parliament, Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye directed that the seat of the Fomena MP, Andrew Amoako Asiamah be declared vacant.

This was because the NPP had written to the Speaker indicating that Mr Asiamah was no longer a member of the party following his decision to re-contest the Fomena seat as an independent candidate.

“With all intents and purposes, he [Asiamah] is no longer a member of the party [NPP]. He has pronounced himself publicly as an independent and has filed his papers to compete against the party [NPP] in his official candidate as an independent on 7th December 2020,” the Speaker said on the day he issued the directive.

Mr Asiamah, following some disagreements with his constituency executives, did not re-contest in the party's primaries held to select a candidate for the 2020 parliamentary elections.

He, instead, chose to contest the seat as an independent candidate.

The decision moved the leadership of the NPP to Fomena including President Akufo-Addo to appeal to him to rescind his decision so that the NPP's preferred candidate, Philip Ofori-Asante would have the advantage in the December 7 elections.

But Lawyer Asiamah maintained his stance and went ahead to contest, coming ahead of the NPP's candidate by over 2000 votes.

He polled 12,805 votes, defeating the NPP candidate, Philip Ofori-Asante who got 10,798 votes, and the NDC candidate Christina Ama Ranson who had 2,608 votes. Another candidate Eric Appiagyei had 158 votes.

Following the outcome of last week’s parliamentary elections, Lawyer Amoako Asiamah's team have indicated that they are not opposed to meeting with the leadership of the NPP to charter a new course with the Party following his dismissal from the party prior to the elections.

Special Aid to the MP-elect, Seth Oduro has said that the team has nothing against President Akufo-Addo and the NPP party, however, considering how Lawyer Asiamah was kicked out of the party, the onus lies on the Party to make the first move.

Currently, the sacked Fomena MP carries the weight to tip the balance in favour of either of the 2 main political parties seeing as the seats are essentially evenly distributed between the NPP and the NDC in parliament.

From the EC's results for the Parliamentary elections, NPP currently has 137 seats and NDC with 136 in the next Parliament with a total of 275 seats. Sene West is, however, still outstanding following a court injunction.

Asiamah is the only independent candidate in the next Parliament.

Already the NPP is alleged to have initiated moves aimed at convincing Mr Asiamah to sit with them in Parliament to enable the party gain at least 2 seats to become the majority if the Sene West seat is declared for them or a one seat majority if it should be declared for the NDC.

Mr Asiamah has not yet commented publicly on the development on which side he chooses to sit in parliament.

But the General Secretary of the NPP, Mr John Boadu has already sent signals that it would not be in the interest of the Party to reconsider its relationship with Lawyer Asiamah.

The Majority Leader, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu who himself is the MP for Suame in Kumasi is thinking on similar lines.

Meanwhile, he disclosed that he is aware that some members of the NDC are also talking to him, trying to convince him to sit with them.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.



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