Parliament reconvened for the Second Meeting of the Fourth Session of the Fifth Parliament, only for the members to be met with overpowering stench in their washrooms.

The worst affected area of the huge edifice that houses the chamber and some offices of the august House was the Speaker?s Lobby which, according to some members of staff of the Parliamentary Service and MPs, had to be sprayed to bring the stench down.

The situation could be attributed to the lack of water in the washrooms.

Some of the MPs, according to some journalists, threatened to raise the matter on the floor of the House but failed to do so.

However, in the course of the day, the taps in the washrooms started flowing and the pungent scent reduced.

The situation could, however, not affect the day?s sitting as the Speaker, Mrs Joyce Bamford-Addo, handled affairs in the House until she gave way to the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, who took the MPs through the consideration stage of the Public Health Bill, 2011.

Earlier, while welcoming the Members of Parliament (MPs), Mrs Bamford-Addo congratulated them on actively participating in the just-ended biometric voters registration exercise.

She appealed to the MPs to be regular and punctual to enable the House to complete its agenda for the meeting.

“It is my prayer that God will continue to endow us with wisdom and a keen sense of duty during the course of the meeting to enable us to continue our work here satisfactorily as in all previous meetings,” she said.

She reminded the House that the meeting would be hectic, since there would be much business to conduct.

The Majority Leader, Mr Cletus Avoka, said the House had a tall order of tenacity and appealed to his fellow MPs to collaborate with the leadership of the House.

Meanwhile, the Speaker has referred the nomination of two persons for deputy ministerial positions to the Appointments Committee of the House for consideration and report.

Mrs Bamford-Addo made the referral after receiving communication from the Presidency on the nomination of Mr Anthony Gyambiby and Mr Kwadwo Owusu-Agyeman as Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, respectively.