President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that the decision of the Supreme Court on the voting rights of Deputy Speakers of Parliament cannot amount to judicial inference in the work of the legislature.
A seven-member panel of the apex court unanimously ruled that deputy speakers of parliament can be counted to form quorum and also vote when decisions are being taken by the House.
However, in a Facebook post after the ruling former President John Dramani Mahama claimed the decision of the Supreme Court was “an unfortunate interpretation for convenience that sets a dangerous precedent of judicial interference in Parliamentary procedure for the future.”
Other member of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been dancing to this tune.
But in an interview with journalists yesterday at the sidelines of Dubai Expo 2020, President Akufo-Addo
said the suggestion that Parliament is beyond the scrutiny of the Supreme Court is to suggest that Parliament is a law onto itself.
“I’m not sure people who are saying this have actually taken the time to read the Constitution of our country. It says so in Black and white. The legislative powers of the State, which is vested in Parliament, is subject to the provisions of the Constitution. All organs of the Ghanaian State, including me as the Head of the Executive, we are all subject to the teachings of the Constitution.
“There is no body in the Ghanaian State that is above the fundamental law of the land. It will lead to the very matter that we have striven so long to avoid – the concentration of unregulated power in our state – we don’t want that. And we brought about this Constitution to allow that to not reoccur”, he reiterated.
Astonished by the “public energy” dissipated in the debate, he was happy with the unanimity of the decision taken by the Supreme Court, especially as it is the most emphatic way in which the Court can pronounce.
President Akufo-Addo pointed out that “the whole principle of judicial review was developed by the judges, both in America and England, to be able to check the activities of Parliament.”
He recalled that the first major constitutional case, which looked at the work of Parliament was in the case Tuffuor vs Attorney General, where the Act of Parliament, the decision of the Parliament to subject the then Chief Justice, the late Frederick Kwesi Apaloo, to a vetting process in Parliament was expressly forbidden by the Constitution.
“And that is the reason why the late Dr. Amoako Tuffuor took the matter to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court made it quite clear that all the activities of all the institutions of our Republic that impugn, that violate the Constitution are subject to the powers of the Court and to the Declarations of the Court,” he said.
“Me, I want to repeat it, as President, Head of the Executive, I am subject to the Constitution and to law. I cannot set myself above it. Everybody has his remit, but those remits are subject to the operations of Constitution, and I am happy that the Constitution has been so declared in such an emphatic manner by the Supreme Court, I support the Supreme Court to continue to do its work”, President Akufo-Addo added.
