The Member of Parliament for Bongo, Edward Bawa has not minced words in expressing his disappointment in the ruling of the Supreme Court that allows a sitting Deputy Speaker of Parliament to be counted to form a quorum and also participate in voting on the Floor of Parliament.
In an earlier post, Mr. Bawa said on his Facebook wall that “a Deputy Speaker makes a ruling on a motion on the basis of a voice vote and a Member challenges his ruling as allowed by the rules and calls for a headcount. The same Deputy Speaker whose ruling has been challenged gets off his high chair and comes down to vote to confirm his own ruling. This is what the Supreme Court is saying. This is sickness. I dey feel shy self”.
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In a subsequent post, the MP sought to suggest that no other party other than the ruling NPP, can get justice.
He wrote, “if you are a member of a party other than the NPP and you believe you will get Justice then you are on your own”.
Private legal practitioner and law lecturer, Justice Abdulai subsequent to the November 30, 2021 clash between Speaker Bagbin and his First Deputy after the latter overturned an earlier vote of the House rejecting Government’s 2022 Budget invited the Supreme Court to pronounce as unconstitutional, Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu’s action of counting himself for the purposes of quorum.
He argued in the context of articles 102 and 104 of the 1992 Constitution that the Deputy Speaker was not permitted to count himself for the purposes of quorum, since he had neither an original nor a casting vote as Speaker presiding.
But the 7-member panel of justices ruled that the Member of Parliament for Bekwai exercised his right constitutionally.
The SC struck out the standing order 109(3) which says a Deputy Speaker or any other member presiding shall not retain his original vote while presiding.
It furthered that the Deputy Speaker can be counted during the quorum for decision making according to article 104(1)
Justice Jones Dotse noted that the full ruling will be made available on Friday, March 11.
A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
