Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has raised serious concerns about the interference of the judiciary and executive in parliamentary affairs.
The Speaker’s remarks come on the back of a Supreme Court ruling interfering with his verdict on vacant parliamentary seats.
Mr. Bagbin highlighted that these actions, involving both the judiciary and the executive, pose a direct threat to his authority in Parliament as the Speaker.
“Ladies and gentlemen, recent acts of the judiciary and executive [and I see them as interference] in the working of Parliament pose a direct challenge to the essence, jurisdiction, authority, powers, and functioning of the esteemed institution of Parliament, which is the repository of the sovereign will of the people of Ghana. It is increasingly becoming clear that the judiciary and the executive are seemingly colluding to weaken Parliament,” Bagbin stated.
Weeks ago, Alban Bagbin officially declared four parliamentary seats vacant with barely two months to the election in December.
This ruling meant that Ghana’s hung parliament, which gave the governing New Patriotic Party a slight upper hand as the Majority side with the support of an Independent Member of Parliament, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, would now tilt towards the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
So, the NDC was now going to have 136 MPs in the house, while the NPP would have 135. Before this, the NPP had 138 whereas the NDC had 137.
This decision sparked an immediate backlash from the parliamentary majority, the New Patriotic Party. It led to a boycott of parliamentary proceedings in protest against what they viewed as an unconstitutional ruling favoring the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The Supreme Court’s stay followed an urgent application by majority leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin, who contended that Bagbin’s ruling undermined democratic representation and violated constitutional rights.
The court has instructed both the Speaker and the Attorney General to submit their statements within seven days to facilitate a swift resolution of this issue.