The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, says the governing New Patriotic Party, NPP, will lose the 2024 general elections if it manages to get the controversial electronic transfer levy bill passed.
According to him, the NPP is voting itself out of power with some of its policies, such as the e-levy.
The imposition of the electronic transfer levy has been the subject of controversy in Parliament, of which voting led to a fight in the house on Tuesday, December 21, 2021.
However, the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin on Thursday, December 23, 2021, advised the party to reconsider the levy.
He added that governing parties always vote themselves out of power because they fail to listen to the masses.
Speaker Bagbin thus said he won’t be surprised should the NPP lose the 2024 general elections.
“As you go around trying to convince Ghanaians to vote for you and your party, others with big pockets are facilitating your parties and when you win power, they get the positions, not you. So they don’t have that understanding, so there is that missing link.”
“So they come to impose their ideas on you to rather take party interest first not Ghana first, and we always vote ourselves out of power, which my colleagues in the NPP are doing now. So don’t be surprised in the next election, if they don’t win. It is very clear that if this e-levy goes through, they have lost the election.”
Meanwhile, he has also absolved himself of any blame in relation to the recent brawl in the house over the imposition of the 1.75 percent electronic transfer levy.
According to him, as Speaker, he has worked with the leadership of the house to conduct business and to apply the rules fairly.
He said he is not a Chief Whip of any of the caucuses in the house, and for that matter isn’t duty-bound to bring in members to the chamber.
“Now they say I refused to preside and that is why some numbers were not in the house. I am not a Chief whip of any of the caucuses in the house and I am also not entitled to bring members to the house. That is not my duty.”
“I am to preside and apply the rules and I have applied them fairly according to my understanding through literature and experience and I am not even sure that the members listened to what I read that day about the rules.”
Credit: citinewsroom
