The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin has officially declared four parliamentary seats vacant with barely two months to the election in December.
This ruling means that Ghana’s hung parliament which gave the governing New Patriotic Party a slight upper hand as the Majority side with the support of an Independent Member of Parliament, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, will now tilt towards the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The NDC will now have 136 MPs in the house, while the NPP will have 135. Before this, the NPP had 138 whereas the NDC had 137.
The legislators affected by the ruling are the NDC’s Peter Yaw Kwakye Ackah of Amenfi Central constituency in the Western Region, Andrew Amoakoh Asiamah of Fomena in the Ashanti Region, Kojo Asante, NPP MP for Suhum in the Eastern Region, and NPP’s Cynthia Morrison of Agona West constituency.
In delivering his ruling on Thursday, October 17, the Speaker after a long reading, stated that if Article 97 (1)(g) of the 1992 Constitution was only to apply to a future parliament, then there would have been no need for it to exist since the MPs in question would have completed the term of the current parliament.
The Speaker also noted that the previous incident where the former Speaker of Parliament Prof Mike Oquaye expelled the Fomena MP from the House after the NPP had informed him about his decision to go independent, was not binding on him or any other Speaker.
The Speaker also noted that once the notice of polls had duly confirmed that the four MPs were going independent, they had no business to remain as MPs in the current parliament.
He thus proceeded to declare their seats vacant.
The decision follows an official petition to the Speaker by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu.
It comes after extensive discussions and arguments presented by both the Majority and Minority sides of the House.
The petition specifically targeted three New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs and one MP from the NDC, invoking Article 97 (1)(g) of the Constitution.
This constitutional provision stipulates that an MP must vacate their seat if they leave the party under which they were elected or attempt to remain in Parliament as an independent candidate.
This situation has sparked significant debate within Parliament, highlighting the political tensions between the incumbent party and the opposition.
During a heated parliamentary debate on Tuesday, Speaker Bagbin acknowledged the gravity of the matter and requested an additional two days to deliver a well-reasoned ruling.
Before Thursday’s ruling, the former Speaker of Parliament, Prof Mike Oquaye had argued that the complaint for the declaration of the seats vacant was to come from the NPP and not any other person or group of people.
He had thus expressed the hope that the current Speaker would not permit the request to declare the seats vacant.
Anyone can report an MP who crosses carpet or opts to run as independent – Prof Abotsi
Before the ruling, the Dean of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) Law School, Professor Kofi Abotsi, said anyone can report a Member of Parliament who crosses the carpet or chooses to run as an independent candidate.
According to him, it is not exclusively vested in the political party to report such an anomaly.
Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Thursday, October 17, he argued that the MP is mainly an agent of the constitution and secondarily an agent of the political party, adding that the parties are only a vehicle to enter Parliament.
He explained that “in elementary principles, the Constitution says whoever is in violation of the Constitution is void. Meaning if anybody acts in a manner considered unconstitutional regardless of the activation of a process by a party, citizen or anyone, the action is intrinsically void.
Source: myjoyonline