By Bubu Klinogo
There was a free for all fight and exchange of blows in Parliament over the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy Bill, popularly known as the Momo Tax Bill. This was as a result of a decision by the first Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei Owusu who was Presiding to take part in a voting, by swapping with the Second Deputy speaker, who had already voted.
The Minority felt it was an illegal move and therefore decided to prevent the Second Deputy Speaker from taking over the Chair.
Members of Parlaiment (MPs) from the Majority side were however in support of the swap.
Parliamentary correspondent Bubu Klinogo reports that the Finance Committee presented its report on the E-Levy Bill which was referred to after the first reading, and by a majority decision recommended that the Bill be taken under a Certificate of Urgency.
The Minority unsuccessfully tried to arrest the consideration of the Bill under a Certificate of Urgency. With that hurdle cleared, the House was to adopt a Motion to stand down the standing order 80 (1) that required that for a Motion to be debated, at least 48 hours must have elapsed between the date on which the Notice of the Motion was given, and the date the motion will be moved, so that the Motion for the second reading of the Bill could be moved December 20, 2021.
The Procedural Motion was moved and seconded and was subjected to a voice vote. However, the Minority challenged the Second Deputy Speaker’s decision on the voice vote and Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak-Muntaka called for a division.
The Second Deputy Speaker however suspended sitting much to the surprise of the Minority, after the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin failed to persuade the Second Deputy Speaker to ignore the Minority’s call for division which he described as obstructive.
Upon resumption of the sitting, the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu took the Chair, and tried to overrule the earlier decision of the Second Deputy Speaker in proceeding with order 80(1) after the House had agreed to take the Bill under a Certificate of Urgency.
The Minority vehemently opposed the First Deputy Speaker’s reasoning and insisted that he proceeded with the division. In agreeing to do the division, Mr. Osei Owusu then announced that, in the course of the voting, he will also vote by swapping with the Second Deputy Speaker. The Minority challenged that position and argued that, any time the first or Second Deputy Speakers or a member is presiding, they lose their original vote and therefore Mr. Osei Owusu could not vote.
The First Deputy Speaker however maintained that he could vote. True to his words, voting started, all those in favour of the motion were asked to move outside the chamber, and their names called one by one to move in and they were counted as they moved in to sit down to determine their number. Shortly after the Second Deputy Speaker was called and was counted, the First Deputy speaker got up in order for him to take the chair. It was at this point that Minority MPs wanted to prevent the Second Deputy Speaker from sitting by rushing to apparently take the Speaker’s Chair, Majority MPs also rushed in to push back the Minority MPs resulting in the physical confrontations and exchange of blows.
This continued for more than 10 minutes and the voting could not proceed further and neither the first nor the second deputy speakers could sit in the chair as they moved out of the Chamber. It took the intervention of the Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu to call both sides to order.
