The Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhasaan Sayibu Suhuyini, has joined members of his party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), in criticising the Supreme Court of Ghana over its directive for the Speaker of Parliament not to go on with the declaration of four seats in the House vacant.

Speaking in an interview on TV3, on October 19, 2024, the Tamale North legislator expressed his dismay about the urgency with which the Supreme Court convened to hear the case which led to its directives to the Speaker.

He said that there are a lot of nationally-important cases before the Supreme Court, including that on the passage of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy), which the court has deliberately decided to slow down.

“You look at a situation where the judiciary today has established a certain pattern. There are a number of cases that Minority Members of Parliament have filed before the judiciary and they are stuck in the courts; a number of them.

“Me sitting here, I have a case involving the ratification of mining leases, still stuck in the courts, filed as far back as 2018, still stuck, not being moved. You have the E-Levy case that the former Minority Leader, Samuel Okudzeto, and others took to court. It's still stuck there. You have the LGBTQ case, the injunction - not the substantive issue, still stuck there. No urgency whatsoever is demonstrated on those matters,” he stated.

The MP went on to state that the Supreme Court, on the other hand, treats every case filed by proponents of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government or the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) with urgency.

He added that Ghanaians are not wrong if they point out what he described as the biases of the court.

“But every single case that the executive has shown interest in, in relation to the work of Parliament, that has gone before the judiciary has seen expedited action and in most cases action favourable to the government. And people say we should not think that the judiciary is beginning to seem and act and look like an extension of the executive. And that when you do that, you are endangering our democracy. But their actions that make it clear that they are beginning to look like an extension of the executive do endanger our democracy.”

BAI/AE

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