Answer to Parliament’s impasse lies at the Supreme Court - Dr Asah-Asante 

A Senior Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana (UG), Dr Kwame Asah-Asante has said the only way to solve the current impasse in Parliament over the vacancy of four members is for both sides of the House to argue their case at the Supreme Court.

“The Supreme Court's ruling, generally, is the law and everybody needs to obey it. You may not like the Supreme Court's ruling, but you can only use law to remedy the situation and say you are going to challenge it and all that. When the Supreme Court rules, it has ruled. It requires obedience. That will be the rules of the decision of the Court,” he said.

He was speaking in an interview with Graphic Online after the Speaker of Parliament, Alban S.K. Bagbin on Tuesday afternoon [Oct 21, 2024] adjourned the House indefinitely due to the lack of quorum to take decisions.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) side had earlier walked out over a disagreement on sitting arrangement on which side formed the majority in Parliament. 

The disagreement over the sitting arrangement followed a ruling by the Speaker last Thursday, that declared four seats vacant on the grounds of crossing carpet following the affected Members of Parliament's decision to file for the December 7, 2024 parliamentary elections in different capacities, either as independent candidates or on the ticket of a political party.

Read also: Parliament does not have numbers to take decisions, House adjourned indefinitely - Speaker Bagbin

Negotiation 

Dr Asah-Asante noted that the indefinite adjournment of the proceedings would greatly affect government business especially at a time when parliament was considering the approval of Supreme Court nominees, tax waivers for certain companies and the passage of several bills. 

He therefore explained that in order to get government business back on track, the leadership of the two sides would have to go to the negotiating table, hammer out their differences and find common ground or compromise which satisfies both sides. 

“I am optimistic that they will weather the storm and come back. There have been difficult times, not to this level anyway, but certain similar situations have occurred in the life of Parliament over the years. The Parliament was able to surmount that challenge, and live up to the expectations of the people of this country, he said.   

“So I am very much sure that they will not disappoint themselves in the first place. And then disappoint the country that they work in, and then disappoint democracy that we have struggled over the years to build and nurture and strengthen to the level that we have today,” the Senior Political Science Lecturer added. 

Wake up call, Jurisprudence 

Dr Asah-Asante described the political situation as a wake up call for Ghana’s democracy emphasising that the political brouhaha was creating awareness and would allow the government to establish a jurisprudence for future situations just like the court had once before declaring parliament a master of its rules in certain decisions. 

“I believe that the time has come for this country to rise up to build a certain jurisprudence in this area, saying that areas that the courts will come in, in terms of problems that face the Parliament, will be areas of pure legal issues,” he said. 

“Also saying that issues that have certain political nature, we are going to reserve it for political actors to handle. If the country takes that decision and builds jurisprudence around this one, I'm sure we will always save our courts, Parliament, and whole society all the trouble that we are going through. But as of now, you realise that some of them are still grey areas that we have not touched upon,” Dr Asah-Asante said.