In his acceptance speech, the newly-sworn in Speaker of Ghana’s 8th Parliament, Mr Alban S.K. Bagbin, swore to submit himself to the will of the House, serve Mother Ghana, and put at the disposal of the House the experience he has accumulated over the years as a legislature.
“I will submit myself to the will of the House, and pledge to serve Mother Ghana, the legislative arm of government, and the public.
“I would also discharge my duties as a Speaker of this Parliament, and promise wholeheartedly to put at the disposal of Parliament the store of knowledge, experience and the huge data bank I have accumulated over the 28 years that I have been a member of this house.”
But whether the Speaker will put these soothing words into practice would be determined on Friday (tomorrow), as the House reconvenes to decide on which of the caucus becomes the Majority and or the Minority.
By Parliament’s convention, the party which won most of the seats in the parliamentary election constitutes the majority in the House, and sits at the right-hand side of the Speaker, while the party that obtained the least members forms the minority and sits on the left.
Currently, both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) all have 137 members each. This tie in the numbers is not going to make the decision of which becomes the majority or the minority as easy as burning flax with fire.
Though the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and Parliament’s Standing Orders cloth the Speaker with powers to decide which becomes the majority and minority caucus in Parliament, many Ghanaians are of the view that taking that decision on Friday would be a hard nut to crack.
Their views stem from the fact that both caucuses have been claiming to be the majority since post-election, an action which has culminated into verbal and physical attacks.
The NPP has argued that the independent candidate and Member of Parliament (MP) for the Fomena Constituency, Mr Andrew Amoako Asiamah, has agreed to work with them and that would bring their number to 138 and give them the majority.
Mr Frank Annor-Dompreh, MP for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, who many have noted would be given the Chief Whip position in the 8th Parliament, has said his party will take its rightful position as the Majority Caucus, come Friday.
Oblivious of the fact that both sides have the same numbers, Mr Annor Dompreh, who was speaking on Accra-based Asempa FM, said: “The Elephant Family is hopeful that the Fomena MP will join their rank to conduct business in the House, a move that will make them become the Majority side.”
But Samuel Nartey George, MP for Ningo-Prampram Constituency, speaking on Metro TV, said the NPP “will be shocked at what they will meet if they try to go down that route on Friday.”
He continued that if the NPP tries “to use force to install themselves as the majority, they (NPP) will be very sorry about what they will meet and what the reaction will be, they will be crushed, and that I will say without any equivocation, the NDC caucus will crush any insurrection that will arise in Parliament by the NPP side.”
He also added that the NDC will want to avoid this looming stand-off and, therefore, was happy that the leadership of both sides of the House will be meeting the Speaker to thrash out issues before the Friday sitting. To him, if this is done, Friday’s sitting will be done without any rancour.
Speaking on Joynews, Mr Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, Chief Whip of the NDC caucus and MP for Asawase, also said: “Working with a caucus does not add your number to them.” (referring to Asiamah)
Muntaka quoted a series of articles from the 1992 Constitution, starting with article 97(1)(g), which states: “A member shall vacate his seat in parliament if he leaves the party of which he was a member at the time of his election to parliament to join another party or seeks to remain in Parliament as an independent member,”, and article 97(2), which also states: “Notwithstanding paragraph (g) of clause (1) of this article, a merger of parties at the national level sanctioned by the parties’ constitutions or membership of a coalition of government of which his original party forms part, shall not affect the status of any Member of Parliament.”
Mr Mubarak contended that article 97(2) does not apply to an independent candidate, hence, Mr Amoako Asiamah can only work with the NPP caucus, but cannot sit with them to form a majority.
He said if Mr Amoako Asiamah belonged to a political party, he could have joined the NPP to form the majority, as stated in article 97(2), but that’s not the case. “He is an independent candidate, so he can only work with them, but not sit with them.” The Asawase legislature said the only way to determine who becomes majority and minority is through the Speaker.
“Now that we have a Speaker, we expect that he conveys a meeting among the leaders for these things to be discussed, so that we know who is forming majority and who is in the minority.” He said knowing who becomes the majority or minority would also help in forming the various committees in the House.
Failure to reach a consensus
Meanwhile, the GNA reports that the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin, has met the leaders of both National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) caucuses in Parliament over the confusion that rocked the inauguration of the 8th Parliament.
Sources close to the meeting also indicated that the leaders of the two sides could not agree on which becomes the majority or minority in the legislature.
As result of this stalemate, the leaders from both sides were tasked to go and discuss the issues and come back with extra recommendations on how they can resolve the issue.
Additionally, it emerged from the meeting that Mr Andrew Amoako Asiamah, the independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Fomena and Second Deputy Speaker, has been asked to write officially to the Speaker which side he intends to align with. The Fomena MP is expected to do the formal communication to the Speaker, Alban Bagbin, between now and Friday 15, January 2021.
The post Fireworks In Parl Tomorrow; As NPP and NDC put Speaker Bagbin to test appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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