\n
The Supreme Court of Ghana has provided a comprehensive explanation of its ruling to uphold the suit filed by Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin.<\/p>\n
In a 5-2 decision delivered on Tuesday, November 12, 2024, a seven-member panel, led by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, reversed the decision of Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin to declare four parliamentary seats vacant.<\/p>\n
In its judgment, the court highlighted that an MP\u2019s seat is considered vacated if the member changes parties within Parliament and continues to serve under the new party affiliation.<\/p>\n
However, two of the justices dissented. Justice Lovelace-Johnson, one of the dissenting judges, argued that the High Court, rather than the Supreme Court, has exclusive jurisdiction in matters related to the vacation of parliamentary seats.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is my opinion that in relation to a matter relating to the vacation or otherwise of a parliamentary seat, a plaintiff has no choice in the matter. He has to go to the High Court. The jurisdiction of the High Court is exclusive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am satisfied that the high court is the proper forum for this matter but the plaintiff having his writ in the Supreme Court, the jurisdiction of this court has not been properly invoked. I, therefore, see no need to go into the merits or otherwise of the other issues raised in the memoranda of issues. The action is accordingly dismissed,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n
Justice Tanko Amadu, in his dissent, also expressed strong reservations, calling the majority\u2019s decision an \u201caberration\u201d to established judicial practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not hasten to proclaim that I have apprehended with despair the majority\u2019s conclusion in this suit, but I state, with utmost deference to the Hon. Chief Justice and the rest of my brethren in the majority that, not only do I fundamentally disagree with their conclusion, I, with all due respect, also find the decision an aberration to the established and accepted a judicial position of this court which with profound respect.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope in no distant future the resultant usurpation of the constitutional prerogative of the High Court incidental to the majority decision will be reversed,\u201d the court held.<\/p>\n
#GhanaPolls2024<\/strong><\/em>
#CitiVerify <\/strong><\/em>
#ElectionBureau<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Supreme Court of Ghana has provided a comprehensive explanation of its ruling to uphold the suit filed by Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin. In a 5-2 decision delivered on Tuesday, November 12, 2024, a seven-member panel, led by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, reversed the decision of Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin to declare four parliamentary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":251072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
Reasons why two Supreme Court Justices dissented - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reasons why two Supreme Court Justices dissented - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Supreme Court of Ghana has provided a comprehensive explanation of its ruling to uphold the suit filed by Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin. In a 5-2 decision delivered on Tuesday, November 12, 2024, a seven-member panel, led by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, reversed the decision of Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin to declare four parliamentary […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-14T20:00:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/AFAC22DE-3A87-4049-9729-8EC90B20DB45-scaled-131102169.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1589\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5\"},\"headline\":\"Reasons why two Supreme Court Justices dissented\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-14T20:00:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":361,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/AFAC22DE-3A87-4049-9729-8EC90B20DB45-scaled-131102169.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Local News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\\\/\",\"name\":\"Reasons why two Supreme Court Justices dissented - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/AFAC22DE-3A87-4049-9729-8EC90B20DB45-scaled-131102169.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-14T20:00:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/AFAC22DE-3A87-4049-9729-8EC90B20DB45-scaled-131102169.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/AFAC22DE-3A87-4049-9729-8EC90B20DB45-scaled-131102169.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1589},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/14\\\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Reasons why two Supreme Court Justices dissented\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"Ghana mma provides breaking news, top stories in Ghana, Africa, business, entertainment, politics and more.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5\",\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ghana News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/author\\\/ghanamma\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Reasons why two Supreme Court Justices dissented - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Reasons why two Supreme Court Justices dissented - Ghanamma.com","og_description":"The Supreme Court of Ghana has provided a comprehensive explanation of its ruling to uphold the suit filed by Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin. In a 5-2 decision delivered on Tuesday, November 12, 2024, a seven-member panel, led by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, reversed the decision of Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin to declare four parliamentary […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/","og_site_name":"Ghanamma.com","article_published_time":"2024-11-14T20:00:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1589,"url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/AFAC22DE-3A87-4049-9729-8EC90B20DB45-scaled-131102169.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ghana News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ghana News","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/"},"author":{"name":"Ghana News","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#\/schema\/person\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5"},"headline":"Reasons why two Supreme Court Justices dissented","datePublished":"2024-11-14T20:00:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/"},"wordCount":361,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/AFAC22DE-3A87-4049-9729-8EC90B20DB45-scaled-131102169.jpg","articleSection":["Local News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/","name":"Reasons why two Supreme Court Justices dissented - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/AFAC22DE-3A87-4049-9729-8EC90B20DB45-scaled-131102169.jpg","datePublished":"2024-11-14T20:00:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#\/schema\/person\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/AFAC22DE-3A87-4049-9729-8EC90B20DB45-scaled-131102169.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/AFAC22DE-3A87-4049-9729-8EC90B20DB45-scaled-131102169.jpg","width":2560,"height":1589},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/11\/14\/reasons-why-two-supreme-court-justices-dissented\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Reasons why two Supreme Court Justices dissented"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"Ghana mma provides breaking news, top stories in Ghana, Africa, business, entertainment, politics and more.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#\/schema\/person\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5","name":"Ghana News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ghana News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024"],"url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/author\/ghanamma\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}