Some Minority Members of Parliament have disregarded the directive of their party to vote against the approval of all 6 ministerial nominees of President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) had ordered members of its caucus in Parliament to stay in the House and block the approval of the 6 nominees to drum home its demand for reduction of the size of government.
It had argued that the size of government was bloated and called on the president to cut it down so as to reduce government’s expenditure in the wake of the prevailing economic crisis.
The president, however, gave no indication of heeding to their call as he made nominations to fill all vacant positions.
Following the nominations by the president, the opposition party issued a statement directing its caucus to reject the nominees.
It said the president was adamant to its call to cut down on the number of his appointees and thus, rejecting the approval of his nominations would compel him to do so.
However, some members of its caucus broke ranks and have voted this evening for the approval of all 6 nominees.
Before the House took the decision through secret ballot, both Minority and Majority caucus had equal number of 136 members each present.
This mean if the Minority members had adhered to the three-line whip issued by their leadership, the nominees would not have attained majority of the votes cast and would have stood rejected.
At the end of the voting, however, all six nominees obtained more than half of the votes cast and have sailed through the processes for appointment to their various portfolios.
It is unclear what action the party will take in the face of this blatant disregard of its order.
But its General-Secretary, Fiifi Fiavi Kwetey had indicated that the party had put in place mechanism to fish members who would go contrary to its directive.
Meanwhile, some Ghanaians have taken to social media to express their disappointment at the Minority caucus for failing to stick to their guns.
For them, the caucus cannot be trusted.
