A brawl has broken out in Ghana’s parliament dur-ing a late-night session over a contentious govern-ment-proposed levy on electronic transactions.
MPs shoved, pushed and threw punches at each other, while others tried to stop the fighting. The chaos started after opposition MPs rushed forward to prevent Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei Owusu from leaving his seat to vote, local media reports.
He was chairing the session, which was then ad-journed because of the disorder. The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has rejected the proposed levy of 1.75% on electronic transac-tions, which includes mobile-money payments.
It says it will hit low-income people and those outside the formal banking sector. But Finance Min-ister Ken Ofori-Artta has said it is necessary to widen the tax net, arguing that it could raise an extra 6.9bn Ghanaian cedi ($1.15bn; £870m) next year.
The parliamentary session began on Monday morning and broke up after midnight, the local Graphic newspaper reports.
It tweeted video footage of the chaos: Many Ghanaians have expressed disappointment at the behaviour of their MPs, saying they ought to be role models – not behaving immaturely.
The deputy speaker’s vote was seen as crucial as parliament has been heavily divided over the pro-posed tax. He is from the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).—AP
