PLAYBACK: Speaker Bagbin's media briefing on matters in Parliament

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin has planned a media briefing Wednesday afternoon amidst the controversy of which side of the House is now the Majority, pending a Supreme Court interpretation on Article 97 on when a seat can be declared vacant.

The Speaker recently declared four seats vacant on the grounds that, the affected Members of Parliament had crossed carpet, by filing to contest the December 7, 2024 parliamentary elections in different capacities, either as independent or on the ticket of political parties, a development, which is different from the status on which they are currently in the House.

Following that, Speaker concluded that they have crossed carpets and went ahead to declare their seats vacant.

That ruling by the Speaker has since been challenged at the Supreme Court and it is still pending.

Following that, there is confusion in the House as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) side is claiming that per the Speaker's ruling, they now have majority seats with 136 seats while the New Patriotic Party (NPP) side is now Minority with 135 seats.

The NPP side however disagrees with that position, explaining that per a Supreme Court directive following the application for interpretation of the Article 97, the Speaker's ruling is on hold and therefore they are still the Majority in Parliament.

At the last sitting of the House, the NPP side walked out and rendered Parliament disabled to have the numbers to take decisions even though they had the numbers to start business with only members from the NDC side present.

Following that the Speaker adjourned sitting indefinitely but following a call by members, he has recalled the House to reconvene on Thursday, November 7.

It is prior to this Thursday meeting that the Speaker has opted to speak to the media Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Speaker in an application at the Supreme Court had prayed the court to set aside its directive for his ruling to be set aside, but the court disagreed and threw that application out.

The Speaker had also opposed the panel and had demanded that, one of the Justices, Ernest Gaewu should not be on the case but that objection was also thrown out.

Background

Speaker Bagbin following a statement by the NDC side in Parliament declared four parliamentary seats vacant on the premise that the current occupants had defected by filing to contest the next elections on tickets different from what they represent in the current Parliament. 

The ruling, which premised a constitutional provision (Article 97) triggered by former Minority Leader and MP for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu, effectively ended the tenure of Agona West Member of Parliament (MP), Cynthia Morrison of the New Patriotic Party (NPP); Amenfi Central MP, Peter Yaw Kwakye-Ackah of the National Democratic Congress (NDC); Suhum MP, Kwadwo Asante of the NPP, and Fomena MP, Andrew Asiamah Amoako, an independent MP.

The development at the time immediately turned the then minority of the house into the majority and vice versa which did not sit well with the then majority (members of the governing New Patriotic Party), throwing the legislative arm and the entire country into a state of confusion.

Following this, the Member of Parliament for Effutu Constituency, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, who was the Majority Leader at the time of the Speaker’s ruling challenged the declaration at the Supreme Court.

He sought an injunction to prevent the Speaker from declaring the seats vacant or taking any steps to enforce the relevant provisions of the Constitution regarding MPs who change their political affiliations during their term in office.

The Apex Court, led by presided over by Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, on October 18, granted the injunction against the Speaker and effectively halted his vacancy declaration. The court held that the ruling was against the rights of the constituents of the MPs in question.

However, days later when parliament tried to sit, both sides of the house were determined to occupy the majority side of house as the NPP caucus leaned on the Supreme Court ruling to maintain the status quo while the members of the opposition NDC believed per the Speaker’s ruling they were the new majority.

This caused the NPP members to stage a walkout which forced the Speaker to indefinitely adjourn parliament.
His decision was based on Article 102 of the constitution which per his interpretation, the house didn’t have the quorum to take decisions.

With the issue of his declaration of the four vacant seats, Speaker Alban Bagbin again moved to had the decision reversed but his application was thrown out in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel of the apex court on October 30. 

RELATED ARTICLES 

Drama in Parliament: Speaker declares 4 seats vacant - 2 NPP, 1 Independent, 1 NDC 

Afenyo Markin moves to Supreme Court to restrain Speaker from declaring independent seats vacant  

Supreme Court halts Speaker's ruling that declared 4 seats vacant 

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

Overturn your ruling - Speaker of Parliament asks Supreme Court