The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has declared four parliamentary seats vacant following a petition by the immediate past Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu.
The National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) Haruna Iddrisu petitioned the speaker of parliament to announce the seats of four MPs vacant after they had decided to go independent. The four MPs include Andrew Asiamah (Fomena Constituency), Kojo Asante (Suhum Constituency), Peter Kwakye Ackah (Amenfi Central Constituency) and Cynthia Morrison (Agona West Constituency). Only one person (Peter Kwakye Ackah) deciding to go independent was a member of the Minority caucus in parliament. The rest three were affiliated to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
With the already hung parliament, the NPP losing a significant number of three seats only helps shift power into the hands of the NDC, as they are now stronger in numbers. The NPP moved from having 138 seats to 135 seats whereas the NDC who previously had 137 now have 136.
The speaker could not deliver his verdict on the day of petition as he believed the matter was of utmost importance and thus requires days of deliberations. He therefore requested the House to give him two extra days to determine the case according to the constitution.
The petition has since engendered heated arguments between the NDC caucus and NPP caucus in parliament.
According to the Article 97 (1)(g) of the Constitution, MPs who had been elected through a politcal party but later decide to extricate themselves from the party or remain as independent candidates must vacate the seat.
In this regard, the Speaker while delivering his verdict indicated that the four candidates no longer have any business doing in the House since polls conducted earlier had indicated their decision to be independent.
“By the notification of the polls, the following members of parliament have by their actions vacated their seats in parliament. The members are Honourable Yaw Peter Kwakye Ackah, Honourable Andrew Asiamah, Honourable Kojo Asante, and finally Honourable Cynthia Morrison. These MPs cannot be allowed by law and my good self to continue to pretend to be representing people that they don’t believe in and they don’t have any loyalty for,” the speaker announced. This signifies that the ruling NPP party now assumes a minority status in parliament.
Before Mr. Bagbin’s rule on the petition on Thursday 17, 2024, former speaker of parliament, Mike Oquaye who adjudicated over similar circumstance expressed hope that the speaker of parliament would not grant the demands of the petition. Mr. Oquaye had also given similar rule in his case.
NPP MPs have not reacted kindly to the Speaker’s announcement of the seats vacant. They have accused the speaker of parliament of conniving with the NDC MPs to take such course of action. The aggrieved MPs have indicated that they will be seeking legal actions to reverse the decision.
In the meantime, the NDC’s Cassiel Ato-Forson who was the minority leader is now the majority leader whereas the NPP’s Alexander Afeyno-Markin is the minority leader.
Source: Dehotpress
Thank you for reading from Dehotpress, a Ghanaian news website. You are welcome to share this story on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., and you can also follow us there.
Discussion about this post