Frederick Opare-Ansah
Former Member of Parliament for Suhum Constituency in the Eastern Region, Frederick Opare-Ansah has suggested two avenues that the Majority in Parliament can use to overturn the 2022 budget rejection.
According to him, Ghanaians have witnessed the events that unfolded last Friday on the floor of Parliament concerning the above subject matter.
However, the former MP has suggested two avenues for the Majority to overturn the decision which includes filing a substantive motion to challenge the ruling of the Speaker, Alban Bagbin, and filing a motion at the Supreme Court seeking the Court to issue a certiorari to quash the Speaker’s ruling as he erred on the face of the record.
Mr. Opare-Ansah in his suggestion said “the second proposal may face several legal challenges and the time available may not be adequate and so I will opt for the first as it is less litigious, preserves the dignity of the House and requires less time. With our superior number of 138, the Majority side will be able to overturn the Speaker’s decision and have another opportunity at taking a new vote in respect of the 2022 Budget”.
Mr. Frederick Opare-Ansah also recommended that the leadership inside Parliament and in Government need to create back channels to properly and seriously engage the Minority Caucus and their Party leadership about the concerns that have been raised about the budget even as the Parliamentary process to overturn the Speaker’s ruling gets underway.
On the matter, Frederick Opare-Ansah wrote “We were all witnesses to the events that unfolded last Friday the 26th day of November 2021, on the floor of Parliament concerning the above subject matter. The Speaker of Parliament, after putting the question, had the clerks actually count the members and then proceeded to make a declaration of the results of the vote and then the consequential order that the Budget had been rejected by the House’’.
The Speaker said: “AYES” have zero (0) and “NOES” have 137. There is no record of abstentions. So clearly the total number of MPs present and voting can easily be determined by the summation of these results. This means there were 137 MPs in the chamber at the time of voting. The provisions of clause (1) of Article 104 of the 1992 constitution which is repeated in the Standing Orders of Parliament are clear. You need at least one-half of all the Members of Parliament to be able to take any decision.
It is important to distinguish for everyone to understand that the one-third quorate number is to allow for deliberations in the house but the quorum requirement for decision making is more than half. Currently, that number is 138.
BY Daniel Bampoe