Former President John Dramani Mahama has defended the fight in Parliament over E-levy, claiming that Minority lawmakers were not supposed to sit timidly and allow unconstitutionality to pass through the House.
He informed the clerics who came to see him that the constitution specifies how Parliamentary sessions should be handled. Therefore setting aside the right procedure was always going to raise eyebrows.
“If you get the details of our concerns you will understand the view from where we are coming from. I do think this meeting is timely, it is good to hear from all sides.
“By the time you have hear what we have to say you will realize that the problem is much deeper than what you think. That is why I have brought some of the MPs . That fight was a fight for democracy , there is no way a speaker can sit in the chair, relinquish the chair, let somebody else come and sit and take a vote in something that he has presided over.
“The constitution is clear, you take a voice vote, Is have it, somebody challenges it, it means we don’t agree with your choice so you must sit in the chair and do a division.”
“It was felt that our MPs should sit timidly and let them pass this unconstitutionality, it wont happen. I am happy that that rowdy scene has woken your consciences that you must intervene because there is a lot that is happening in this country that if we don’t intervene it will affect our democracy,” Mr Mahama further indicated.
On Monday, December 20,2021, members of Ghana’s Parliament couldn’t keep their emotions in check as they brawled in the House shortly before the final vote on the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy Bill, better known as e-levy.
The sit-in Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, had declared that a division would be held to adopt the Bill, which had been tabled under a certificate of urgency, and that he would vote in his position as a Member of Parliament as well.
Members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) seemed to be irritated by his choice to vote after presiding over the night’s events.
They made their way to the front of the dais, hurling threats at the Bekwai MP.
This prompted the Majority MPs to launch their own protests, and the fight erupted as soon as Mr Osei-Owusu turned over the presiding function to the Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Amoako Asiamah.
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SOURCE: 3NEWS
