Flagbearer of the New Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has advocated for the controversy on the four vacant seats in parliament to be resolved politically.
Mahama argued that a legal solution would not be effective, as Parliament is not subservient to the Supreme Court.
He advocated for a political solution to the issue during a fellowship with the clergy in Kumasi earlier today.
“Recently, we have witnessed the stand-off between the Supreme Court and the Speaker of Parliament and personally, I think that the issue is a political one and the solution is not a legal one.
“This is because the Supreme Court can deliver a ruling and Parliament can decide to ignore it because they’re not subservient to them, they’re a separate arm of government,” he said.
The former president explained that since it is unclear who holds the majority in parliament, the decision he would have taken if he were the president would have been to direct the case to be taken out of the Supreme Court.”
“If I were President, I would direct for the case to be taken out of the Supreme Court, then I would call the Minority and the Majority or leaders of both parties, now we don’t know who is Majority or Minority anymore, both sides say they are the Majority.”
“I would then call the leaders of the two groups and eminent clergymen, Council of State and the Speaker of Parliament himself and I believe that, when they sit to deliberate, they will find a solution to the ongoing impasse.”
Mahama however suggested that the 1992 constitution be looked at again to clarify all ambiguity to prevent future occurrences.
“However, for this not to happen again, the Constitution must be looked at again. This is because some of the issues are clear, others are also not clear, leading to division of opinions on what the Constitution says,” he said.
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