Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has stated that parliamentary candidates whose results have been annulled by the Supreme Court are ineligible to be sworn in as Members of Parliament on January 6, 2025.
According to him, the ruling of the Apex Court is in line with his position that the re-collation of results and declaration of these MPs-elect were unlawful.
“The decision of the Supreme Court just followed the position I took before they even delivered their decision. To become a member of parliament, you have to be elected by the voter, and you have to be declared by the electoral commission.
“But you have to be sworn in by the speaker. Until you are sworn in by the speaker, you remain MP-elect. So I was very clear in my mind that some of those re-collation and re-declarations were completely null and void,” he stated.
Speaking in Parliament on Saturday, Speaker Bagbin noted that he is the gatekeeper and will ensure that the right thing is done.
“They were unknown to the law and so they were not properly so-called MPs-elect and not qualified to be sworn in by me. My clerk is here. We had those discussions when I told them. They were all surprised. I said, yes. I’m the gatekeeper. The right thing must be done for us to be able to reset Ghana,” he added.
The Supreme Court on Friday, December 27, nullified the re-collated results for the Okaikwei Central, Ablekuma North, Tema Central, and Techiman South constituencies, citing irregularities in the process.
This ruling was on the back of a suit by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) against a High Court decision on December 20, which directed the Electoral Commission (EC) to re-collate parliamentary election results in six disputed constituencies.
A five-panel member of the Apex Court presided over by Justice Gabriel Pwamang however upheld the results in Nsawam-Adoagyiri and Ahafo Ano North which were part of the re-collation.
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