Monrovia – While the proposal for the reduction of lawmakers’ salaries and benefits is long dragging on, the House of Representatives has passed on a bill that seeks to increase the number of legislative seats – an action that is expected to incur more financial burdens on the government.
By Emmanuel Weedee-Conway
Sitting on the 16th day of the second session of the third quarter, members of the House voted to stretch the numbers of seats at the House from 73 to 87 seats.
This passage simply suggests that an additional 14 new electoral districts would be created in the next election cycle if the action receives concurrence by the Liberian Senate and subsequent signing into a handbill by the President.
As read by the Chairman of the House Committee on Elections and Inauguration, Judiciary and Good Governance and Government Reform, Representative Thomas Romeo Quioh of Sinoe County District #1, the new districts will be distributed across nine counties based on population growth and representation needs.
These counties include: Bong County (two additional seats,) Grand Bassa County (one), Grand Cape Mount County (one), Grand Gedeh County (one), Lofa County (two), Margibi County (one), Montserrado County (four) and Nimba County (two).
If concurred upon by the Liberian Senate and endorsed by President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, the total legislative seats will leap from 103 to 117.
For some lawmakers, especially from those benefiting counties, the increment makes sense for equitable representation as populations continue to shift and grow across the country.
But some lawmakers are not happy on the grounds that the report did not provide them with ample time for further scrutiny or deliberation.
On the heels of tense legislative debate on the matter as some members of that august body tried to counter the report through request of information, Speaker Richard Nagbe Koon asked that they express their position through their votes. He threatened that they be ordered out by the Sergeant-At-Arms.
Despite some disagreements and contestations on the floor, the majority in line with legislative procedure voted in favor of the report.
The votes were still again, greeted by a number of motions of reconsiderations across plenary, but these motions were dead on arrival by the power of Speaker Koon’s gable with the shout: “Motion Denied.”
Most interestingly, the House members’ decision comes on the heel of an outstanding rigmarole about the proposed salary cut of lawmakers.
The bill, “An Act Fixing the Monthly Remuneration of the Legislature,” which was originally introduced by Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon during the 54th Legislature in 2020 and resurfaced in the 55th Legislature, seeks to reduce lawmakers monthly earnings from US$8,000 to US$5,000.
In the mind of the proponent – Sen. Dillon, formalizing lawmakers’ salaries through law would end exaggerations and help the government save at least US$4M annually that would go towards solving other key priority issues in the areas of health and education or agriculture.
But many lawmakers, including Montserrado County District 17 Representative Bernard Blue Benson alias “DJ Blue,” expressed opposition to the proposal.
A once celebrated disk jockey, Rep. Blue Blue went on to threaten to invoke juju if anyone ever dares to reduce his salary as proposed.
The radical stance taken by many lawmakers over the reduction of their salaries seem the passage of said act unlikely; hence, an addition of 14 more seats would further compound more financial burdens on the government that is preoccupied into bundles of competing priorities amid financial constraints.
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