Stand-off in Parliament: Solution rests with Speaker - Afenyo-Markin asserts

The Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has stated that the solution to the ongoing stand-off in Parliament rests solely on the shoulders of the Speaker of the House, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin.

He said it was Mr Bagbin’s declaration of the seats of four Members of Parliament (MPs) vacant that caused the chaos in the chamber, insisting that the Speaker consequently bore the ultimate duty of bringing peace in the House.

The Leader of Government Business pointed out that the Speaker was the “source and cause” of the confusion in Parliament, rather than any other person.

“We think that the Speaker has failed Parliament, and he is failing democracy. That is our view,” the Effutu MP said in an interview with the Daily Graphic last Friday.

Mr Afenyo-Markin, therefore, urged the Speaker to direct the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs to vacate the seats on the right side of the Speaker in the chamber.

“We think that Mr Speaker is the only person who has the responsibility to bring peace in that chamber, and no other person,” he said.

Ready to engage

Speaking on the way forward to resolving the current stand-off in the Legislature, Mr Afenyo-Markin expressed the readiness of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Caucus to engage with the Speaker to resolve the impasse.

The Leader of Government Business in Parliament said the chaos in the chamber emanated from the pronouncement made by the Speaker who declared those four seats vacant.

Consistently, he said, the NDC members had been occupying the place of the NPP members in the chamber, for which reason the NPP members had chosen to stay out because “we do not want to confront them”.

“It is the reason why we stayed out of the chamber, and it is Mr Speaker’s duty to direct them (NDC MPs) to go back to their seats,” he said.

The MP for Effutu said the NPP MPs had consistently been decent and respectful enough to avert needless scenarios.

“This is because we have put peace at the heart of all that we are doing, and that is why we did not get into the chamber.

“It is Mr Speaker’s duty to direct the NDC MPs to go back to their seats; nothing more and nothing less,” he said.

Mr Afenyo-Markin, however, stressed that his group was open to engaging the Speaker on the way forward in order to return Parliament to full operation.

“If there is the need for engagement with the Speaker, why not? After all, politics is about engagement, and we are not shying away from any engagement, no,” he said. 

“We accorded him all the respect, and we will continue to accord him all the respect, but the point must be made that his action has resulted in the chaos in the chamber,” he said.

Accusations

Amid the cross-conversation on the impasse, some NDC MPs have accused the Leader of the NPP Caucus of disrespecting the Speaker through utterances that sometimes question his discretion in relation to how Mr Bagbin has presided over parliamentary affairs since the October 15, 2024 events in Parliament.

Indeed, a statement by the NDC last Friday signed by the Deputy Leader of the caucus, Emmanuel Kofi Armah-Buah, demanded that Mr Afenyo-Markin apologise to the Speaker for his continuous personal attacks.

It said such attacks were deliberately calculated to lower the Office of the Speaker in the eyes of right-thinking Ghanaians.

It said having abused Article 112 (3) and Order 53 of the Standing Orders of Parliament to trigger another urgent recall of Parliament for the third time this year on November 7, Mr Afenyo

Markin and members of the NPP Caucus completely abandoned the parliamentary chamber and the business of Parliament.

“We are highly disappointed that instead of appearing in the chamber yesterday to transact the so-called urgent business for which MPs had to abandon their campaign activities and honour the recall, Mr Afenyo-Markin and the NPP caucus did not only abandon the chamber but embarked on a vitriolic media campaign against the Speaker,” the statement said.

It added that in a series of viral media interviews, Mr Afenyo-Markin “could be heard attacking the Speaker in very unsavoury and unparliamentary terms unbecoming of a Minority Leader of the NPP caucus in Parliament”. 

No apology

But the NPP Caucus Leader disagreed with the call for him to apologise to the Speaker.

“When the Speaker attacked the President, did they issue a statement calling on the Speaker to apologise to the President?

“They should stop these trivialities and pettiness since there is a serious matter at hand. Have they apologised for their conduct? They should not pick my responses to them out of context and create a mountain out of a mole hill,” he said.

NDC’s decision

When the Daily Graphic reached the leadership of the NDC Caucus in Parliament on the way forward to address the impasse in Parliament, the Chief Whip of the caucus, Kwame Governs Agbodza, said they preferred to wait for the Supreme Court’s ruling today in order to take an informed position.