The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has predicted that the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) will lose the 2024 general election if the contentious electronic transfer levy bill is passed.
Some of the NPP’s policies, such as the e-levy, he claims, are voting it out of power.
The imposition of the electronic transfer levy has sparked debate in Parliament, with voting resulting in a fight in the house on Tuesday, December 21, 2021.
However, on Thursday, December 23, 2021, Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin advised the party to reconsider the levy.
He went on to say that ruling parties are always voted out of power because they fail to listen to the people.
Speaker Bagbin has stated that he will not be surprised if the NPP loses 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 absolved himself of any responsibility for the recent house brawl over the imposition of the 1.75 percent electronic transfer levy.
As Speaker, he has worked with the leadership of the House to conduct business and apply the rules fairly, he claims.
He stated that he is not the Chief Whip of any of the caucuses in the House, and that he is not obligated to bring 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.”
