Kwaku Ansa-Asare, a private legal practitioner, has condemned the involvement of the Supreme Court in the ongoing impasse between the Majority and Minority caucuses in Parliament.
He says the issue before the House currently is political and not legal, the reason the involvement of the apex court, with certain comments of the Chief Justice, has worsened the matter.
The former Director of the Ghana School of Law says the issue should not have been sent to the Supreme Court in the first place, adding that the introduction of the legal bit into the development is what has exacerbated it.
“The Supreme Court has no say in this political tussle going on between the Minority and Majority. [What is going on] is devoid of any constitutional legality to send it to the Supreme Court,” he told host, Keminni Amanor, on Hot Issues Sunday, November 10, 2024 on TV3.
When asked that the Chief Justice “has been able to find in the constitution that even Parliament is subject to them and not even the executive”, Mr. Ansa-Asare retorted that “that has added to the problem.”
According to him, the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court has not been properly invoked because the Attorney-General who is the nominal defendant in the matter has not been served in the matter but rather the Speaker who ideally should not even be a party in the ongoing case.
He asserts the apex court’s attempt to resolve the matter has rather made it worse.
“Sometimes, in trying to find a solution to a problem, you rather create more problems. The Speaker ought not to have been a party under Article 88 clause 5 of the Constitution, the Attorney-General is the nominal defendant and since the Attorney-General had not been served, there was no proper defendant before the court. That is why I said consistently that the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court had not been properly invoked,” he stated.
His comments come on the back of the brouhaha in Parliament which has led to the House being adjourned indefinitely between two weeks.
Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, on Thursday, November 07, 2024, adjourned the House indefinitely for the second time, following an earlier one on Tuesday, October 22, when in both instances, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) members boycotted sitting.
This was because the National Democratic Congress (NDC) members had taken the seats on the right hand of the Speaker after claiming to be majority.
The NPP MPs, who also insisted they are majority boycotted the House with the Speaker having no option than to adjourn Parliament for lack of quorum in the first instance.
During the last sitting where he adjourned the House again, the Business Committee could not present any agenda for discussion forcing him to end proceedings and adjourn sitting sine dine.
The controversy, stems from a ruling the Speaker made on Thursday, October 17, where he declared some four seats vacant because their occupants have chosen to do business with different political parties or contest as independent candidates in the upcoming elections.
The ruling was stayed by the Supreme Court bringing confusion over who currently occupies majority or minority in the House.
