Private legal practitioner, Martin Luther Kpebu, has asked leadership of Parliament to negotiate on the way forward as members resume sitting today following the majority-minority conundrum.
According to him, the ruling of the Supreme Court on the declaration of the four seats vacant should not work because it undermines the Legislature as an independent arm of government.
Speaking on Maakye, Onua TV’s morning show Tuesday, October 22, 2024, he said if the ruling of the Supreme Court is tolerated, it would set a bad precedence for future presidents to stuff the apex court with their members and have their way whenever they want to.
“Whoever says we should obey the Supreme Court ruling is lying. They should negotiate something because this ruling should not work. If this is tolerated, every President will fill the Supreme Court with his people and rush to court on everything. It is not all the laws that are good. When certain things are not right, you stand on your grounds. They should stand firm and negotiate something,” he told host, Captain Smart in Twi.
However, the renowned legal practitioner advised that “they shouldn’t fight.”
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.
Ruling of five justices amounts to contempt of Parliament – Ansa-Asare
