Sam Nartey George, the representative for Ningo-Prampram, has claimed that the adoption of the three new tax legislation on Friday in parliament was not approved by the minority.
He claims that it is necessary to examine the clerk of parliament about how they were able to obtain 137 despite Ahmed Tuferu’s absence due to an injury.
On the basis of the information the clerk gave the speaker, he continued, the majority won the vote with 137 votes, hence he was not to be held responsible.
According to him, the minority would not have had to participate in the vote process if the revenue bill had been approved by consensus.
“If we had acquiesced, we wouldn’t have gone through with the vote, we wouldn’t have accounted for our 136, we wouldn’t have challenged what appeared to be an error in counting. We are aware now that at the time we did the first count, Ahmed Tuferu was not in Parliament.
“There are two [majority] MPs who also walked in after the clerks had finished taking the vote from the majority side, so clearly, that vote shouldn’t have read 136, 137, but be that as it may, the Speaker only announces what it is presented to him.
“The clerks have a question to answer as to how they managed to get 137,” he is quoted to have said by CitiTV.
Meanwhile, the Speaker of Parliament has explained why the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nanton Constituency, Northern Region, Mohammed Hardi Tufeiru, was counted despite being absent in the chamber during voting.
According to him, the leaders reported that the MP was incapacitated by some physical infirmity, and based on this, the MPs, including doctor Dickson Adamako Kissi who accompanied the MP, were counted and accordingly recorded.
Mohammed Hardi Tufeiru is reported to have been involved in an accident, preventing him from participating in the head count vote in the chamber.
Following this development, the Minority Chief Whip, Govern Agbogza, quizzed the speaker about why he counted 137 from the majority side of the house despite the absence of two.
Govern Agbodza said, “When we took the last vote, you counted 137 for our colleagues. Some members of the public are aware that two of our colleagues were not physically present here, I think it will be appropriate for you to make a pronouncement so that the public knows why you still counted 137.”
In response, the speaker said, “…that is why I referred you to Order 114 rule 4, and asked you to read that order, but for the education of the public, I will read that order.
“Order 114 rule 4 says for members who are incapacitated by some physical infirmity from passing through the lobbies shall upon reporting their incapacitate to the speaker though the clerk, be counted and recorded accordingly in the house.
“We have some of our members that are incapacitated and what I did was to ask the clerk to go and physically see them, the state of incapacitating, whether they are of sound mind because we are dealing with the decision taken, voting before they can come to testify; which has been done and so they recorded and counted accordingly.”