The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has clarified that the sitting arrangement for legislators does not fall within his mandate.
His clarification comes amid the controversy over which side of the House is now the Majority, pending a Supreme Court interpretation of Article 97 on when a seat can be declared vacant.
The Speaker declared four seats vacant on the grounds that the affected MPs had crossed the carpet by filing to contest the December 7 parliamentary elections in different capacities, either as independents or on the ticket of political parties, a development that is different from their current status in the House.
That ruling by the Speaker has since been challenged at the Supreme Court and is still pending.
Currently, there is confusion in the House as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) side claims that per the Speaker’s ruling, they now have majority seats with 136 while the New Patriotic Party (NPP) side is now minority with 135 seats.
However, the NPP side disagrees with that position, explaining that per the Supreme Court directive following the application for interpretation of Article 97, the Speaker’s ruling is on hold and therefore they are still the Majority in Parliament.
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During a media briefing on Wednesday, November 6, Speaker Bagbin explained that while Ghana’s Parliament is influenced by the Westminster system, which traditionally dictates that the majority party occupies certain sitting arrangements, it is not a binding rule.
He stressed that sitting arrangements are typically guided by parliamentary conventions and the prevailing balance of power rather than by direct intervention from the Speaker.
Mr Bagbin urged MPs to prioritize parliamentary order and functionality, noting that such matters should be resolved by dialogue among the leadership rather than sitting disputes.
“It is not part of the duties of a speaker to decide where an MP should be in parliament. That determination in Ghana’s constitution doesn’t exist. In various parliaments, these things we are talking about; majority and minority don’t exist any longer. That is why in my ruling, I used the term old school, which is the British model; the government and opposition.
“…You can sit anywhere, but the numbers determine who is the majority and who is the minority. In our parliament, the practice is for those who constitute the majority to sit on the right side of the speaker and those who constitute the minority to sit on the left side of the speaker.
“That is because, after independence in 1957, we adopted the Westminster system, which is practised in the United Kingdom. But we changed that even to the extent that the arrangement on the floor of the house is in a horseshoe. So, it is not always the case that the people to the left side are all members of a minority, that is not the case now and there is good reason,” he stated.