Monrovia – Whereas the proposal for the discount of lawmakers’ salaries and advantages is lengthy dragging on, the Home of Representatives has handed on a invoice that seeks to extend the variety of legislative seats – an motion that’s anticipated to incur extra monetary burdens on the federal government.
By Emmanuel Weedee-Conway
Sitting on the sixteenth day of the second session of the third quarter, members of the Home voted to stretch the numbers of seats on the Home from 73 to 87 seats.
This passage merely means that an extra 14 new electoral districts can be created within the subsequent election cycle if the motion receives concurrence by the Liberian Senate and subsequent signing right into a handbill by the President.
As learn by the Chairman of the Home Committee on Elections and Inauguration, Judiciary and Good Governance and Authorities Reform, Consultant Thomas Romeo Quioh of Sinoe County District #1, the brand new districts will probably be distributed throughout 9 counties primarily based on inhabitants development and illustration wants.
These counties embody: Bong County (two extra seats,) Grand Bassa County (one), Grand Cape Mount County (one), Grand Gedeh County (one), Lofa County (two), Margibi County (one), Montserrado County (4) and Nimba County (two).
If concurred upon by the Liberian Senate and endorsed by President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, the whole legislative seats will leap from 103 to 117.
For some lawmakers, particularly from these benefiting counties, the increment is sensible for equitable illustration as populations proceed to shift and develop throughout the nation.
However some lawmakers aren’t blissful on the grounds that the report didn’t present them with ample time for additional scrutiny or deliberation.
On the heels of tense legislative debate on the matter as some members of that august physique tried to counter the report via request of knowledge, Speaker Richard Nagbe Koon requested that they categorical their place via their votes. He threatened that they be ordered out by the Sergeant-At-Arms.
Regardless of some disagreements and contestations on the ground, the bulk in keeping with legislative process voted in favor of the report.
The votes had been nonetheless once more, greeted by plenty of motions of reconsiderations throughout plenary, however these motions had been useless on arrival by the ability of Speaker Koon’s gable with the shout: “Movement Denied.”
Most apparently, the Home members’ choice comes on the heel of an impressive rigmarole in regards to the proposed wage lower of lawmakers.
The invoice, “An Act Fixing the Month-to-month Remuneration of the Legislature,” which was initially launched by Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon through the 54th Legislature in 2020 and resurfaced within the fifty fifth Legislature, seeks to scale back lawmakers month-to-month earnings from US$8,000 to US$5,000.
Within the thoughts of the proponent – Sen. Dillon, formalizing lawmakers’ salaries via legislation would finish exaggerations and assist the federal government save no less than US$4M yearly that will go in the direction of fixing different key precedence points within the areas of well being and schooling or agriculture.
However many lawmakers, together with Montserrado County District 17 Consultant Bernard Blue Benson alias “DJ Blue,” expressed opposition to the proposal.
A as soon as celebrated disk jockey, Rep. Blue Blue went on to threaten to invoke juju if anybody ever dares to scale back his wage as proposed.
The novel stance taken by many lawmakers over the discount of their salaries appear the passage of mentioned act unlikely; therefore, an addition of 14 extra seats would additional compound extra monetary burdens on the federal government that’s preoccupied into bundles of competing priorities amid monetary constraints.
