There’ll be no chaos when Parliament reconvenes on Dec.16 – Afenyo-Markin
The Majority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has reassured that there will be no mayhem in parliamentary proceedings on Monday, December 16, 2024.
According to him, the Supreme Court’s verdict declaring the Speaker of Parliament’s ruling unconstitutional is what holds.
The apex court upheld that it was illegal for Speaker Alban Bagbin to declare some four seats vacant.
Mr. Afenyo-Markin added that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is still the Majority Caucus due to the number of legislators in the chamber.
The Effutu MP reiterated that the court’s decision has brought finality to the debate over the composition of the Majority and Minority in Parliament. He expressed confidence in a peaceful and productive session moving forward.
“This Parliament would expire on the 6th of January 2025. The NPP is the majority in Parliament, and there is no doubt about it. The Speaker of Parliament made a certain pronouncement. We disagreed with that, and we filed a process at the court. The court ruled in our favour.
“The matter has been settled. The interpretation of the constitution is to the effect that all those who had filed as independent candidates had filed for the 2024 elections.
“Therefore, it did not affect their tenure in Parliament and did not affect the caucus to which they belong. It has been settled, and so I don’t see any reason for any further controversy,” he noted in an interview monitored by The Ghana Report on Citi News.
The parliamentary proceedings on Monday will be held at the Grand Arena of the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC).
Background
The legal case was brought before the court by Mr. Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary caucus, who was seeking an interpretation from the court that Article 97(1) (g) and (h) only apply to a current term of Parliament.
Therefore, the move by the Speaker to declare the seats of the four MPs vacant was unconstitutional.
Article 97(1)(g) of the Constitution states: “A member of Parliament shall vacate his seat if he leaves the party of which he was a member at the time of his election to Parliament to join another party or seeks to remain in Parliament as an independent member.”
Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Bagbin, declared the seats vacant based on this provision.
The affected MPs were Peter Kwakyi Ackah of Amenfi Central, Cynthia Morrison of Agona West, Kwadjo Asante of Suhum, and Andrew Asiamah of Fomena.
While Peter Kwakyi Ackah, Cynthia Morrison, and Kwadjo Asante wanted to contest as independent candidates, Andrew Asiamah, who was in the House as an independent MP, wished to switch and represent the NPP party.
Tamale South MP, Haruna Iddrisu, initiated the whole saga when he petitioned the Speaker of Parliament to declare vacant the seats of three Majority MPs and one Minority MP due to their decision to cross carpet.