A senior Political Science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Richard Baah Amoako, has agreed more with the ruling of the Supreme Court more than the Speaker on the current happenings in Parliament.
He says in as much as the Speaker is not entirely wrong with his verdict, the Supreme Court is equally right to some extent, considering the fact that the courts serve the entire interest of society including Parliament.
The leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party was speaking on the ruling of the Speaker of Parliament which affects four members, subsequently declaring their seats vacant.
Speaking on TV3 Tuesday, October 22, 2024, the former National Chairman aspirant of the NPP said the declaration of the seats vacant is an infringement on the rights of the MPs in question and the Supreme Court, not only the Speaker, also has a say in it.
“I say the Speaker is right, Chief Justice is right. As a matter of fact I’ll have to say the Chief Justice is more right than the Speaker because parliamentarians are not only affected by the rules of Parliament. They are affected by rules of society too and declaring a seat vacant is an infringement of a particular MP’s right and so he has to get redress and so the Supreme Court has the right to speak about that too and not just the Speaker.
“In fact the Supreme Court has more right than the Speaker. But please, let them know the Speaker is not entirely wrong, the Supreme Court is not entirely wrong, they should calm down because this is a serious situation,” he advised.
Parliament resumes today, Tuesday, October 22, 2024, after the Speaker, the Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, on Thursday, October 17, 2024, declared four seats in the House vacant.
This was after they have switched allegiance to either contest as independent candidates or join a different political party in the upcoming December elections. But, the ruling, was quashed by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on Friday, October 18, 2024, issued a stay of execution on the ruling by Speaker Alban Bagbin declaring the 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.
