We will act accordingly if Speaker Joe Wise attempts to vote on E-Levy – ABA Fuseini

Supreme Court delivers landmark ruling

Ruing related to the right of Deputy Speakers to vote and be counted to form a quorum

Minority Leader described the ruling as judicial support for E-Levy

Member of Parliament for the Sagnarigu Constituency in the Northern Region has accused the Supreme Court of double standards in its recent ruling that a

Read full articlepresiding Deputy Speaker is allowed to vote.

According to Alhassan Bashir Alhassan Fuseini, the apex court’s ruling on Wednesday, March 9, 2022, was politically tainted and that members of the Minority NDC will act on an as and when basis if a presiding Deputy Speaker attempts to vote.

Responding specifically to the question on the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) and what the Minority will do if First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, decided to vote while presiding, ABA Fuseini said they will ‘act accordingly.’

“I am telling you that our members will act accordingly and nobody can stop us in this House from doing what we believe is right and proper in the interest of our democracy.”

Asked what they will do specifically, he said: “When we get there, we will cross it.”

He queried how the same Court could affirm that Parliament was a master of its own ruled and turn around to impose rules on the lawmaking chamber as shown in the March 9 ruling.

“Which court ruled that Parliament is a master of its own rules? Is it not the same Supreme Court? And now the Supreme Court can come and tell us that the Standing Orders of the House must be thrown away,” he lamented.

He furthered that with this type of ruling, it was clear that the court was not protecting the Constitution. He vowed that ff anything flouts the Constitution, “we (the Minority) will resist it.”

The Minority Caucus to which he belongs has expressly rejected the decision with Leader Haruna Iddrisu referring to it as repugnant to the provisions in Article 102 and 104.

“The Court’s ruling aptly captures the judicial support for the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy), for a struggling economy in distress,” he said.

“The Judiciary of Ghana is also failing Ghana’s parliamentary democracy in their inability to appreciate the true meaning of Article 110 of the 1992 Constitution that Parliament shall, by Standing Orders, regulate its own proceedings.”

Background

Following controversy over the rejection and later approval of the 2022 budget by one-sided Caucuses of the 8th Parliament, a private legal practitioner, Justice Abdulai, filed a case against the Attorney General at the Supreme Court.

He prayed the Court to interpret two Articles - 102 and 104 - of the 1992 Constitution and by so doing to declare the proceedings in Parliament on November 30, 2021, which led to the passage of the 2022 Budget and Economic Policy as unconstitutional.

He specifically cited the fact that the Presiding Speaker, First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, had counted his vote despite acting as Speaker.

However, in defence of the State, the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, argued that there was no express provision in the 1992 Constitution that stops a Deputy Speaker presiding over proceedings from voting or counting himself as part of MPs present to form the right quorum.