Parliamentary Turnover in Ghana’s Fourth Republic: Perspectives of Members of Parliament

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue VII, July 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Parliamentary Turnover in Ghana’s Fourth Republic: Perspectives of Members of Parliament

Harrison Kofi Belley
Governance Studies Department, Evangelical Presbyterian University College, P. O. Box HP 678, Ho, Ghana

Abstract: Since the return to constitutional rule in Ghana in January 1993, the high turnover of parliamentarians in Ghana’s fourth republican parliament has been a source of concern to not only Members of Parliament (MPs) and the leadership of parliament, but to the academia as well. The minority and majority leaders in the seventh parliament of the fourth republic of Ghana have bemoaned this practice where most MPs do not go past one term of parliament. The aim of this study was to examine members of parliament perceptions about impact and implications of the high attrition rate of MPs on the members and parliament as an institution. Data for the study was collected in 2019 through semi-structured interviews conducted with forty-five purposively selected minority and majority MPs of the fourth republic. The findings revealed that the high attrition rate of MPs affects the work of parliament and parliamentarians significantly. Parliamentarians reported that the loss of experience MPs to fresh one affects the quality of work done by the legislative arm of government. They revealed further that the outrageously high attrition rate cannot facilitate the growth of parliament; neither can it grow our parties. They identified: (i) increasing monetization of internal party elections (ii) unfulfilled promises of MPs (iii) pettiness on the part of constituents and party activists as some of the causes of the high attrition rate of parliamentarians in Ghana’s parliament. Given the diversity of opinions on the phenomenon, parliamentarians suggested that the public affairs department should intensive its education on the workings of parliament and its engagement with the general public.

Keywords: Ghana, Attrition Rate, Members of Parliament, Parliament, Constitution, Turnover.

1. INTRODUCTION

Ghana’s democracy is acclaimed to be a beacon of hope for the African continent (Gyimah-Boadi 2013, Alidu 2019) with an enviable record of seven successful successive multi-party elections since the country returned to democratic, constitutional rule in 1993. Significant gains have been made in institutionalizing democracy and good governance in the last two and half decades since Ghana came to join other African countries in political liberalization in the early 1990s. Ghana’s success story includes power alternation on three consecutive occasions with the ruling party losing power and handing over to the opposition party. This occurred in 2001, 2009 and 2017. The media in Ghana is a vibrant one with several newspapers, radio and television stations spread across the length and breadth of the country. The independence of the media as guaranteed by the constitution enabled the media to strongly discuss policy issues and politicians, calling on them to be transparent and accountable to the citizens.

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