A former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, has said the Supreme Court verdict staying the ruling of the Speaker of Parliament had procedural lapses rendering the directive nugatory.
He says although the suit being an ex parte, the applicant was supposed to properly serve the two parties, which are the Speaker of Parliament and the Attorney General.
Speaking on the KdeyPoints on TV3 Saturday, October 19, 2024, the former Director of the Ghana School of law said the attempt to serve the Speaker through the legal department was wrong.
He asserted that the proper means was to have served the Clerk of Parliament saying the jurisdiction was not properly invoked, making the ruling of the court null and void.
“The Supreme Court did not have jurisdiction. It’s jurisdiction was not properly invoked so whatever the Supreme Court did yesterday constitutes a nugatory, null and void. The applicant, Afenyo-Markin, brought an application against two respondents –the Speaker and the Attorney-General –none of them was properly served.
“We are told that an attempt was made to serve the Speaker through the legal department, that was wrong. You can either serve the Speaker himself or normally, the Clerk of Parliament,” he disclosed.
He further argued that there has not been any comment regarding service to the Office of the Attorney-General, adding that the three-day maximum period required to serve notice to the respondents was also not observed.
“The second thing is that nothing has been said so far whether or not, the second respondent –the Attorney-General –was served.
“The usual practice is that where an application is brought ex parte and the respondents are not before the court, the court will grant the application for a maximum number of three days and direct the applicants to bring the respondents by notice so the applicant, Hon. Afenyo-Markin, would have taken steps to serve the Speaker and Attorney-General properly. That was not done. And therefore, the procedural lapses render the Supreme Court’s position a nugatory,” he explained.
The Supreme Court on Friday, October 18, 2024, issued a stay of execution on the ruling by Speaker Alban Bagbin declaring some four parliamentary seats vacant.
The Court also directed Parliament to recognise and allow the four MPs to fully represent their constituencies and carry out their official duties.
The applicants had initially requested for a 10-day but the Supreme Court says they should carry on with their roles as MPs until the final ruling on the matter has been delivered.
The application to stay the Speaker’s decision was filed by New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament, who sought the Court’s intervention to halt the enforcement of the ruling that would have affected three of their colleagues and one from the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The application was filed ex parte, meaning that neither Speaker Bagbin nor Parliament was joined to the case.
The ex parte application made the Court consider the plaintiffs’ request without seeking any response from the Speaker or other parliamentary authorities at this stage.
The case was heard by a panel of Supreme Court justices presided over by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo.
Other members of the panel included Justice Mariama Owusu, Justice Kwame Adibu Asiedu, Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu, and Justice Yaw Darko Asare, who together delivered the ruling to stay the Speaker’s decision.
Representing the NPP MPs were lawyers Paa Kwesi Abaidoo and former Attorney General Joe Ghartey.
They successfully argued for the stay, which temporarily halts the Speaker’s ruling pending further legal proceedings. The Court’s decision effectively keeps the four MPs’ seats intact in the meantime.
The ruling affected three NPP MPs made up of Cynthia Morrison (Agona West), Kwadjo Asante (Suhum), and independent candidate who was doing business with the Majority, Andrew Asiamah (Fomena), and one NDC MP, Peter Yaw Kwakye Ackah (Amenfi Central), who either chose to run as independent candidates or switched party affiliations for the 2024 elections.
As a result, the NDC, previously in the Minority, now becomes a majority with 136 seats with the NPP remaining with 135 seats now assuming minority.
However, the Supreme Court’s decision on the ex parte motion reverses the ruling of the Speaker until the final ruling on the matter is delivered.
