Don’t Pay NDC MPs Who Boycott Parliament – Kwame Pianim Tells Govt

A renowned economist Kwame Pianim has said that Members of Parliament (MPs) who boycott their parliamentary duties to protest situations they are happy with should not be paid their allowances.

He said a lawmaker has no business boycotting parliament.

“A parliamentarian has no business to boycott parliament. If they boycott parliament their allowances should be taken off,” he said on the News 360 on TV3 Wednesday, July 19.

“Parliament is young, there is a tendency now to put a lot of burden on the fledgling judiciary which is not fair,” he added.

He was reacting to the decision by the Minority in Parliament to stay away from Parliament as a way of protesting the trial of Assin North Member of Parliament James Gyakye Quayson.

The Minority said that they have decided to reciprocate the response to the government’s escalation of what they describe as ‘persecution’ of Mr Quayson.

In a statement, the opposition lawmakers said “Following a request by the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dame, that Hon. James Gyakye Quayson be tried on a daily basis, despite an application for stay of proceedings and a pending application before the Court of Appeal against the daily trial, the High Court has ruled that it will continue to hear the case daily.

“In essence, the rulings by the High Court put Hon. James Gyakye Quayson in the same position that he was placed in by the Supreme Court before the Assin North Constituency by-election

“If the Member of Parliament must appear in court every week day for trial, what time will he have to attend to Parliamentary business to represent the people of Assin North? We are therefore, at this point, including all options available to us to defend and protect our colleague. Hon. James Gyakye Quayson is the only person to have been elected twice within a Parliamentary term. He first won the 2020 Parliamentary election in Assin North Constituency, which was declared null and void by the Supreme Court after two and a half years. This triggered a by-election which he won again by an overwhelming 57.56% on 27th.”

An Accra High Court on Tuesday, July 18 dismissed the stay proceedings application of Mr Quayson to stop his criminal trial until the outcome of the appeal at the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

This allowed for cross-examination of the prosecution’s first witness to take place.

But one of the lawyers of Mr Quayson, Abraham Amaliba questioned the credibility of the prosecution’s first witness in the criminal trial of Mr Quayson.

“He swore an oath that his statement was written in English [but] it turned out that when he was shown his own statement he spoke in Twi and it was recorded, that goes to the credibility of the witness, that goes to his mindset.

“So clearly, you notice that the prosecution witness was not helpful to the prosecution at all,” he told journalists after the court hearing on Tuesday, July 18.