Four parliamentary seats are declared vacant by Speaker Bagbin.
With just two months till the December election, Speaker of the House Alban Sumana Bagbin has formally declared four parliamentary seats vacant.
With the support of Independent Member of Parliament Andrew Amoako Asiamah, the ruling creates a hung parliament in Ghana, giving the ruling New Patriotic Party a tiny advantage over the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
With 136 MPs in the parliament, the NDC now leads the NPP with 135 MPs. The NDC had 137 and the NPP had 138 before to this.
The verdict had an impact on the following legislators: Kojo Asante, the NPP MP for Suhum in the Eastern Region; Andrew Amoakoh Asiamah of Fomena in the Ashanti Region; Peter Yaw Kwakye Ackah of the NDC in the Western Region; and Cynthia Morrison of the NPP in the Agona West district.
After a lengthy reading, the Speaker declared in his ruling on Thursday, October 17, that if Article 97 (1)(g) of the 1992 Constitution was only intended to apply to a future parliament, then it would not have been necessary for it to exist because the MPs in question would have served out the remainder of the current parliament’s term.
The Speaker further stated that neither he nor any subsequent Speaker would be bound by the earlier occurrence in which the Fomena MP was ejected from the House by former Speaker of Parliament Prof. Mike Oquaye upon notification from the NPP of his decision to become an independent.
The Speaker added that the four MPs had no business continuing to serve as MPs in the current parliament after the notice of polls properly verified their decision to go independent.
He then went ahead and declared their seats empty.
The choice was made in response to a formal appeal submitted to the Speaker by Haruna Iddrisu, a member of parliament for the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
It follows protracted debates and statements made by the House’s Minority and Majority parties.
The petition used Article 97 (1)(g) of the Constitution and specifically targeted three MPs of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and one MP of the NDC.
According to this constitutional clause, a Member of Parliament must resign from their position if they seek to
Political tensions between the ruling party and the opposition have been brought to light by this circumstance, which has generated intense debate within Parliament.
Speaker Bagbin recognised the seriousness of the situation during a contentious parliamentary debate on Tuesday and asked for an extra two days to issue a well-reasoned decision.
Prior to the decision on Thursday, Prof. Mike Oquaye, the previous Speaker of Parliament, had maintained that the NPP, and no other individual or group of individuals, should file the complaint for the seats to be declared empty.
So, he had conveyed his hope that the Speaker of the House at the moment would grant the request to declare the seats vacant.
Anyone who chooses to run as an independent or crosses carpet can be reported by anyone, according to Prof. Abotsi
Prior to the decision, Professor Kofi Abotsi, the dean of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) Law School, stated that anyone might denounce a member of parliament who chose to run as an independent or who chose to pull carpets.
He asserts that the political party is not the only entity with an obligation to disclose such an irregularity.
In an interview that aired on Thursday, October 17, on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, he maintained that the MP’s primary role is to serve as an agent of the constitution, with the political party serving as a means of entry into Parliament.
He clarified, saying, “The Constitution declares, at its most basic, that anyone who violates it is void. That is to say, an activity is inherently void if it is carried out in a way that is deemed to be against the Constitution, regardless of whether a party, citizen, or other entity initiates the process.
