Minority won’t return to Parliament until after December polls – Nii Lante

Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Odododiodio, has revealed that the Minority Caucus will not be in Parliament until after the 2024 general elections.

Nii Lante Vanderpuye’s comment follows the move by the Majority Caucus to trigger a recall of Parliament in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Speaker Alban Bagbin’s declaration of four seats as vacant.

In an interview, the NDC MP emphasized that the NPP Caucus could not justify the “unnecessary spending” of taxpayer money.

He added that the NDC Minority Caucus would focus on election preparations and resume parliamentary duties only after the December polls.

“They should not waste the taxpayers’ money by asking us to come to Parliament in the next three weeks. We are not coming. We are concerned about elections and shall only come to Parliament after the elections. That should be at the back of their minds,” he said.

He further stressed, “We want them to understand one fact that as far as we are concerned, issues about minority or majority are determined by the numbers in the house, so when we resume, the numbers will tell whether we are the majority, or they are the majority. This is not about the Supreme Court.

“…It is not for the NPP or the Supreme Court to define for us who are majority or minority in Ghana’s Parliament. We have our own procedures for determining who is a majority or who is a minority. When they were declared majority by Speaker Bagbin, did they go to the Supreme Court to seek that declaration?” he quizzed in an interview monitored by The Ghana Report on Channel One TV.

It will be recalled that the Supreme Court on November 12, 2024, declared Speaker Bagbin’s ruling on the four vacant seats as unconstitutional.

The disagreement centred on Mr Bagbin’s interpretation of Article 97(1)(g) of the Ghanaian Constitution as justification for declaring the seats vacant.