General News of Thursday, 17 March 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-03-17Your attack on Supreme Court ruling very dangerous – Adom-Otchere chides Bagbin
Paul Adom-Otchere, host of Good Evening Ghana with Speaker Bagbin on is touchscreen
Supreme Court delivers landmark ruling on voting rights of Deputy Speakers
Speaker Alban Bagbin critiques the unanimous ruling of the apex court
Adom-Otchere cautions Bagbin to thread cautiously
Paul Adom-Otchere, host of Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana programme has stated that he was shocked by recent comments by Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, relative to a Supreme Court ruling on voting rights of Deputy
Read full article.Speakers whiles presiding.
According to Adom-Otchere, it was very dangerous the views that Bagbin expressed on the apex court’s determination that contrary to Parliament’s Standing Orders, Deputy Speakers could vote whiles presiding and could be counted to form quorum as well.
Bagbin’s March 11 reaction to the unanimous ruling by the Justice Jones Dotse lead court described the judgement as among others, absurd, reckless and troubling.
“The Supreme Court decision, is to say the least, not only an absurdity but a reckless incursion into the remit of Parliament. The trend of unanimity is equally troubling. It doesn't help explore and expand our legal jurisprudence,” the statement observed.
Adom-Otchere in his editorial of March 15, 2022 said he was, “completely shocked and I was with the Majority Leader when he said that he is not sure that those words came from Speaker Bagbin.
“Speaker Bagbin appears to have said something which is quite serious. He said that the Supreme Court must know that the matter of political doctrine is a closed book.
“The point he was making is that the Supreme Court can’t tell Parliament what it was supposed to do and which Standing Orders is right or not, that concerns me,” he stressed.
The programme host went on to site the incidence under the Fourth Republic where Speaker DF Annan, Court of Appeal judge and Speaker, stood down a Parliamentary process for the apex court to have liberty to hear a case. Annan he noted went as far as halting a budget presentation pending the determination of the said case.
“We are hoping that Speaker Bagbin is not entertaining any thoughts in his mind and consider the Supreme Court ruling as an affront to his authority as a Speaker, because based on the things that he has started saying, it is very dangerous. This has never happened in the history of our country,” he stressed.
The court led by Justice Jones Dotse ruled unanimously that Deputy Speakers could vote whiles presiding and be counted to form decision-making quorum. They also declared a portion of the Standing Orders that barred Deputy Speakers from voting as unconstitutional.
The Minority have 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 destress,” 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.”
Read the full ruling of the Supreme Court below:
