Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader, calls the Supreme Court’s decision on whether a Deputy Speaker can vote while presiding a travesty of justice.
He believes the ruling demonstrates that the court has failed the country’s parliamentary democracy.
The 1st Deputy Speaker’s decision to vote while presiding devolved into mayhem.
The Tamale South MP stated in Parliament that the ruling represents judicial backing for the government’s decision to pass the e-levy.
“The judiciary of Ghana is failing parliamentary democracy in their inability to appreciate the true meaning of Article 110 of the Constitution. That Parliament shall by standing orders regulate its own procedures. When we regulate our own proceedings and reference is made to the 1992 Constitution and not standing orders of Parliament, especially standing order 13. ..This is judicial support for Nana Addo’s e-levy.”
The ruling backed the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu, who justified his crucial vote in the approval of the 2022 budget, even though the fact that he was presiding as Speaker.
The Court also declared rule 109 (3) of the Standing Orders of Parliament unconstitutional.
Mr. Osei-Owusu, also the Bekwai MP, presided over the reversal of a previous House vote rejecting the government’s 2022 Budget on November 30, last year.
The groundbreaking ruling came in a case made by a law professor, Justice Abdulai, who was opposing the Deputy Speaker’s decision to include himself as creating a quorum for a budget vote.
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SOURCE: CITINEWS
