It will be a busy session of the 13th parliament with the two houses of parliament set to resume sittings later today.
The Senate and the National Assembly will today consider and approve, the Calendar for the Second Session 2024(Regular Sittings); the membership of the House Business Committee, Committee of Parliamentary Powers and Privileges, and that of the Select Committee on Members Services and Facilities. These committees are sessional, and their membership has to be approved every new session.
And amid a growing rift among members allied to the majority and minority parties in parliament, the break from the long recess is expected to provide the legislators with a platform to ventilate on various legislations whose outcomes are expected to have far reaching implications for the country.
The report of the National Dialogue Committee which proposes among others the creation of new political positions and the reconstitution of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission are expected to be key priorities for parliament.
The report has called for the creation of the office of Leader of the Opposition, which will be occupied by the leader of the party that garnered the second highest number of votes in the presidential election with two deputies and the entrenchment of Prime Cabinet Secretary’s office into the Constitution.
MPs will also be considering the Affordable Housing Bill 2023, which proposes the introduction of a 1.5 per cent housing levy to facilitate the construction of affordable houses, currently undergoing public participation.
With a leadership vacuum at the IEBC, the team also proposed the establishment of an expanded selection panel constituting of nine members to recruit the electoral body’s chair and commissioners with the MPs also scheduled to consider the Affordable Housing Bill 2023 currently undergoing public participation.
