General News of Monday, 4 November 2024

Source: starrfmonline.com

I anticipated the recall of parliament – Prof. Sarfo-Katankah

Parliament of Ghana Parliament of Ghana

Dean of the Faculty of Art at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Professor Kwabena Sarfo-Kantankah has asserted that he anticipated the recall of parliament.

The office of the Speaker of Parliament has released a statement calling for the resumption of parliament. This follows the indefinite adjournment of parliamentary proceedings on October 22, 2024.

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin announced the indefinite adjournment of parliament due to the exchanges between lawmakers from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regarding which caucus held the Majority.

However, in a statement released on October 31, Parliament is set to reconvene on November 7, 2024, at 10 a.m. in the Grand Arena, Accra International Conference Centre.

In an interview on Starr Today with Joshua Kodjo Mensah, Prof. Sarfo-Kantankah expressed his expectation of parliament’s recall.

He cited the ongoing Supreme Court case and the push by some parliament members for recall as reasons for his anticipation.

“I anticipated it too because if you look at what has been going on with the Supreme Court decision and then the call by some members of Parliament for the Speaker to call Parliament to come back, at least I expected that it will not be long that the Speaker will have to call Parliament back because this is a constitutional provision that is stated in the letter calling MPs to come back on the 7th of this month.

"If you look at Article 112 clause 3, 15% of members of Parliament can ask the Speaker to call Parliament to a meeting. So I anticipated that it was going to happen. Otherwise, the Speaker may have breached a constitutional provision”, he noted.

He also expressed that he expects that the status quo in parliament will remain, with the NPP maintaining its majority status and the NDC maintaining the minority status.