The Member of Parliament for Madina, Francis-Xavier Sosu on Tuesday drew the Speaker of Parliament’s attention to what he described as a needed a correction, requesting that minutes of their previous sitting that captured the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Caucus as the Majority in Parliament was wrong.
In his view, as at Thursday when the NPP caucus abandoned proceedings, they had become the Minority side of the house and insisted that the record be corrected to reflect just that.
Francis-Xavier Sosu’s intervention came as the house, constituted only by the National Democratic Congress members, went through correction of the minutes for subsequent adoption.
“Mr Speaker, I also want to draw your attention to paragraph five. The ending statement which is ‘Majority Caucus’.
“Mr Speaker, I think the true intention would be reflected if we say that the ‘Minority Caucus staged a walkout’ instead of the ‘Majority Caucus’, so if the correction can be made to reflect that,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has adjourned sitting in the House amid vacant seats controversy.
This decision was made in a House filled with NDC legislators who had taken over where the NPP caucus usually occupied as the Majority.
The NPP Members of Parliament had walked out earlier due to a controversy with the opposition, who had taken over their seats after claiming to constitute the majority.
Background
On October 18, the Supreme Court issued a stay of execution on Speaker Alban Bagbin’s ruling, which declared four parliamentary seats vacant and directed that the affected MPs are duly recognised as MPs able to carry out all their duties.
Parliament was, in essence, instructed to recognise and allow the four MPs to fully represent their constituencies and carry out their official duties.
This directive will remain in effect, not for the 10 days initially requested by the applicants, but until the Supreme Court delivers its final ruling on the case.
Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin had gone to court to stop the Speaker from declaring the four seats vacant, however, with Bagbin going ahead to declare the vacancies, the Supreme Court proceeded to grant the ex-parte motion.
The case was heard by a panel of Supreme Court justices presided over by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo.
Other members of the panel included Justice Mariama Owusu, Justice Kwame Adibu Asiedu, Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu, and Justice Yaw Darko Asare, who together delivered the ruling to stay the Speaker’s decision.
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