Speaker of Parliament Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin yesterday created total confusion in Parliament when he declared the seats of four Members of Parliament (MPs) vacant.
The MPs affected were Cynthia Morrison, Agona West; Kwadjo Asante, Suhum; Second Deputy Speaker Andrew Asiamah, Fomena; and Peter Kwakye Ackah, Amenfi Central.
Speaker Bagbin’s ruling generated an uproar in parliament after he refused to allow Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin to make comments on the matter, leading to the NPP caucus boycotting the House.
Mr. Afenyo-Markin clashed with the Speaker after his ruling before walking out of the Chamber.
This was after the Speaker upheld a motion by the Minority caucus led by Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson that the seats of the four MPs should be declared vacant because three of them have decided to stand as independent candidates and one independent candidate on the ticket of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2024 general election.
In delivering his ruling, Speaker Bagbin after a long reading, stated that if Article 97 (1)(g) of the 1992 Constitution was only to apply to a future parliament, then there would have been no need for it to exist since the MPs in question would have completed the term of the current parliament.
“Honourable members it is important to point that the speaker is called upon by the standing orders of parliament particularly order 18 to inform the house of the occurrence of a vacancy of the seat of a member under clause (1) b to e, g and h of article 97 of the constitution. Accordingly, I will proceed to inform the house that by the notification of the polls the following MPs are by their actions vacated their seats in parliament,” Mr. Bagbin ruled.
Even though the Speaker virtually followed precedent, he indicated that the previous incident where the former Speaker of Parliament Prof Mike Oquaye expelled the Fomena MP from the House after the NPP had informed him about his decision to go independent, was not binding on him or any other Speaker.
Again, although Mr. Bagbin indicated that the constitutional provisions were subject to interpretation by the Supreme Court, he still went ahead to give his ruling.
According to him, once the notice of polls had duly confirmed that three of the MPs were going independent and Independent MP Andrew Asiamah on the ticket of NPP, they had no business to remain as MPs in the current parliament.
Before yesterday’s ruling, the former Speaker of Parliament, Prof Mike Oquaye had argued that the complaint for the declaration of the seats vacant was to come from the NPP and not any other person or group of people.
He therefore expressed the hope that the current Speaker would not permit the request to declare the seats vacant.
The motion
The motion was filed by former Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu who argued that the MPs must relinquish their seats once they opted not to belong to where they were in this current.
According to him, these MPs have effectively forfeited their party affiliations, thus vacating their seats in Parliament.
Supreme Court
Meanwhile, Majority Leader Afenyo-Markin had filed an application at the Supreme Court for interpretation of Article 97 and other provisions of the Constitution.
Speaking to the media in Parliament immediately after his side staged the walkout, Mr. Afenyo-Markin stated that the Office of the Speaker refused to be duly served with the writ by bailiff and Mr. Bagbin went ahead with the ruling.
According to him, the NPP caucus will continue to boycott Parliament until the Supreme Court rules on the matter.
Mr. Afenyo-Markin argued that Speaker Bagbin had no right to rule on the matter, after deliberately avoiding service of his writ just to do the bidding of the NDC.
