Why Minority is moving a motion to set aside budget approval by the Majority

Minority has filed a motion seeking to annul the ruling the First Deputy Speaker

The Minority rejected the 2022 budget statement of the government

It was later approved by the Majority

The Minority Caucus in Parliament has decided to file a motion in Parliament seeking to annul the ruling of the First Deputy Speaker,

Read full articlehref='/GhanaHomePage/people/person.php?ID=2881'>Joseph Osei-Owusu on the 2022 Budget.

Joseph Osei-Owusu on November 30, 2021, ruled for the approval of the budget after the Minority had declined to engage in the business of the day.

Speaking on Metro TV’s ‘Good Evening Ghana’ programme on Tuesday, December 7, Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga said, on the day that the Majority annulled the decision of the Minority and went ahead in approving the 2022 budget statement of Ghana, the Minority Caucus decided not to participate in the proceedings of the House because they believed whenever Joseph Osei-Owusu, the First Deputy Speaker is presiding over the House, then they will not have the quorum to annul and approve the budget.

“The position of the Minority was that, the First Deputy Speaker, when he sits as Speaker cannot count himself as part of the at least half (MPs needed to take a decision). So, the Minority strategy was to stay out, not to even come, so that there is no quorum right at the beginning and then they will not even get at least half.

“And so, whatever they will do, the Minority will also question that on the basis that they also do not have at least half as they are claiming the Minority do not have. So that was the strategy that informed the decision of the Minority to stay out on Tuesday, November 30, 2021,” he explained.

Ayariga added that, on the day the Majority annulled and approved the budget that the Minority had rejected, the First Deputy Speaker counted himself as part of the quorum and “insisted that once he is not the main Speaker but a Deputy Speaker and an MP, he forms part of the MPs; so, there is a quorum of 138 to take a decision…”

Parliament on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, approved the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of government presented by Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta on November 17 in the absence of MPs from the Minority.

This was upon a motion by Majority leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, and a vote by the House after the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu ruled that the earlier decision by the House to reject the budget was in error and in violation of Article 104 (1) and caused it to be expunged from the records.

Parliament then proceeded to consider the motion on the budget and subsequently approved it.