Source: Onuaonline.com
Kwaku Ansa-Asare, a former Director of the Ghana School of Law has said that the Supreme Court’s directive to Parliament thrashing the ruling of the Speaker for declaring four seats vacant is contemptuous.
He says just as the Judiciary as an arm of government has contempt powers, so does the Legislature under Article 122, making the revocation of the Speaker’s ruling by the apex an act of contempt.
According to Ansa-Asare, the Supreme Court’s action is a provocation of Parliament and the actions of the Justices that made the ruling, including the Chief Justice, and can be hauled before the courts for contempt.
“A more fundamental constitutional point arises. What the Supreme Court did yesterday amounted to provocation of Parliament. Parliament under Article 122 has contempt powers just as the legislature also has contempt powers. What the five justices did yesterday amounted to contempt of Parliament and Parliament can haul them before the court.” he said Saturday, October 19, 2024, on the KeyPoints on TV3.
Describing the actions of the Supreme Court as needless, he said the decision also amounts to constitutional lawlessness, amorphous and meaningless.
“What the Supreme Court did yesterday was needless. It has created a situation of constitutional lawlessness. The Speaker can refuse to comply with the directive and in any case, the directive to Parliament is amorphous, it was meaningless. The Supreme Court has no business directing Parliament as to what to do. Under Article 110, Parliament has the sole authority to regulate its procedures,” he stated.
The Supreme Court on Friday, October 18, 2024, issued a stay of execution on the ruling by Speaker Alban Bagbin declaring some four parliamentary seats vacant.
The Court also directed Parliament to recognise and allow the four MPs to fully represent their constituencies and carry out their official duties.
The applicants had initially requested for a 10-day but the Supreme Court says they should carry on with their roles as MPs until the final ruling on the matter has been delivered.
The application to stay the Speaker’s decision was filed by New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament, who sought the Court’s intervention to halt the enforcement of the ruling that would have affected three of their colleagues and one from the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The application was filed ex parte, meaning that neither Speaker Bagbin nor Parliament was joined to the case.
The ex parte application made the Court consider the plaintiffs’ request without seeking any response from the Speaker or other parliamentary authorities at this stage.
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.
Representing the NPP MPs were lawyers Paa Kwesi Abaidoo and former Attorney General Joe Ghartey.
They successfully argued for the stay, which temporarily halts the Speaker’s ruling pending further legal proceedings. The Court’s decision effectively keeps the four MPs’ seats intact in the meantime.
The ruling affected three NPP MPs made up of Cynthia Morrison (Agona West), Kwadjo Asante (Suhum), and independent candidate who was doing business with the Majority, Andrew Asiamah (Fomena), and one NDC MP, Peter Yaw Kwakye Ackah (Amenfi Central), who either chose to run as independent candidates or switched party affiliations for the 2024 elections.
As a result, the NDC, previously in the Minority, now becomes a majority with 136 seats with the NPP remaining with 135 seats now assuming minority.
However, the Supreme Court’s decision on the ex parte motion reverses the ruling of the Speaker until the final ruling on the matter is delivered.
Source: www.onuaonline.com
