The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, on Tuesday, October 15, 2024, asked for two days to enable him give his ‘ruling’ on a petition on declaring four seats in Parliament vacant, which was submitted by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale South and former Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu.

The Speaker, after hearing the arguments of the Majority and Minority Caucuses, noted that the matter was not only serious but urgent, which is why he needed the two days to proffer a judgement that would ensure that justice is served.

After asking for the two days, however, Speaker Bagbin appeared to have taken a subtle jab at the current Majority Caucus, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs, who are at risk of losing their current status.

His jab, which was inspired by a quotation from the Holy Bible, also seemed to be a hint of the judgement on the declaration of the seats in question vacant, which would affect the composition of Parliament with regards to which party forms the Majority and Minority Caucus.

“Both the statement and the comments have raised quite serious issues of procedure and substantive law and I think I need time to go through them.

“Because what I believe is that ‘Do unto others as you want others to do unto you’ and ‘When you plant evil you will reap evil’,” he said.

It is not clear whether the Speaker’s biblical references were about the declaration of a seat vacant in 2020, which was supported by the then NPP MPs and Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye.

Prof. Mike Oquaye declared the Fomena Constituency seat vacant in 2020 prior to the general election.

His ruling was based on a letter written to Parliament by the NPP on October 13, 2020, to trigger Article 97.

The letter and subsequent announcement came after Andrew Amoako Asiamah decided to file and contest the 2020 parliamentary election as an independent candidate, citing machinations against him in the party’s primaries.

Amoako Asiamah, who had lost the party’s primaries held in June 2020, subsequently contested and won the 2020 elections as an independent candidate.

Now, the NPP MPs are opposed to the declaration of the four seats cited by Haruna Iddrisu to be declared vacant even though they seem to be under the same circumstances as the 2020 Fomena declaration.

MPs for Agona West and Suhum, who are members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), filed their nominations to contest in the 2024 parliamentary election as independent candidates.

The independent MP for Fomena has also filed his nomination to contest in the election on the ticket of the NPP, and the Amenfi Central MP, a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), also filed his nomination to contest as an independent candidate.

Article 97 [1(g) & (h)] of the 1992 Constitution states that “a member of Parliament shall vacate his seat in Parliament 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; or if he was elected a member of Parliament as an independent candidate and joins a political party.”

Watch the Speaker's remarks in the video below:



BAI/AE

Watch the latest episode of Election Desk below





Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.