By: Edzorna Francis Mensah
Parliament on tenterhooks as the Majority Caucus in the House runs to the Supreme Court to protect their interest against a petition filed by the former Minority Leader praying the Speaker to declare about four seats vacant.
Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin in the early hours of Tuesday 15th October, 2024 told journalists in Parliament that he has filed an injunction application at the Supreme Court in response to the Minority’s efforts to have the Speaker declare the seats of independent Candidates vacant.
The decision to instruct his Lawyers to carry out the action on his behalf, follows an announcement by former Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, that he intends to invoke Article 97(1)(g) of the Constitution to vacate the seats of three Majority MPs and one NDC MP.
Article 97(1)(g) states that an MP shall vacate their seat if they leave the party they were elected under or seek to remain in Parliament as an independent Candidate.
Haruna Iddrisu has already written to the Speaker of Parliament, requesting the declaration of these four parliamentary seats vacant.
According to some of the MPs who were contributed to the Minority Leader, Cassiel Ato Forson public statements in relation to the petition suggested that, if the motion succeeds, the NDC, currently with 137 MPs, would become the Majority party, altering the balance of power in the House.
At present, the Majority holds 138 seats, while the Minority holds 137.
And in order to prevent such a situation, Mr. Afenyo-Markin was in Court to avoid repeating the precedent set in 2020, when then NPP MP Andrew Amoako Asiamah’s seat was declared vacant.
He believes that the Supreme Court should be allowed to resolve this issue.
Constitutional lawyer Justice Abdulai has noted that the constitutional provision for declaring the MPs’ seats vacant is clear, leaving little room for legal maneuverings.
In 2020, Speaker of Parliament Prof Mike Ocquaye declared the Fomena Parliamentary seat vacant. The declaration follows the decision of the NPP MP to contest for re-election as an independent candidate after he lost the party primary.
“With all intents and purposes, he is no longer a member of the party. He has pronounced himself publicly as an independent and has filed his papers to compete against the party in his official candidacy as an independent on 7th December 2020,” the Speaker said.
This comes on the back of a letter by the leadership of the NPP to expel Andrew Amoako Asiamah, the incumbent MP from the party after he decided to run as an independent candidate in the 2020 general elections.
“Having forfeited the membership of the party on whose ticket he was elected to parliament, the operative language of the constitution is that, he shall – which is mandatory – vacate his seat in Parliament” He said further.
Amenfi Central, Suhum, and Agona West MPs have declared and filed to run independent in 2024 parliamentary elections.
Meanwhile, the Speakers asked for two days to rule on the matter.