Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has chastised Majority Leader and Member of Parliament (MP) for Suame, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, for challenging a directive he gave in Parliament.
This happened Tuesday on the floor of the House when the Suame MP accused the Speaker of being lax on the rules of Parliament.
During Tuesday’s sitting, the Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs suggested to the Speaker to issue a strict directive for all MPs to sit at their respective positions in the House.
This, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, explained will allow easy identification of MPs in the House.
According to him, Speaker Bagbin, prior to assuming office, had been insistent on Members speaking from their seats so that he will be able to identify them with ease.
However, according to Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, upon assuming the role of Speaker, Mr Bagbin has relaxed on the rules.
“When you were the Deputy Speaker, you were insistent that Members speak from their seats so that you’ll be able to identify them but our notice is that you never cease to make that pronouncement and yet as the day rises on, you relax on the rules,” the Majority Leader told the Speaker.
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“I’ll encourage you to be consistent with us so that everybody will speak from his seat; the rules should not be relaxed,” he added.
The motion, however, was overruled by the Speaker who asked the Suame MP to resume his seat.
He further dismissed the claims from the Majority Leader insisting that he had not relaxed any of the rules of the House.
“Hon. Majority Leader your powers have not reached that. The business of government is led by you in this house, you don’t lead Parliament, you lead the business of the House, you lead the Majority and you lead government business.
“As to the role of the Speaker, you haven’t reached there yet, when you get there you’ll give rules,” the Speaker said.
The Speaker’s comment was met with an uproar of laughter from the rest of the Parliamentarians who initially were surprised over the Majority Leader’s comment.