The Member of Parliament for Asante Akyem North Constituency, Andy Appiah-Kubi, has intimated that the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, sitting through the proceedings for the minority to reject the 2022 budget, is an attempt to undermine the constitution.
Commenting on the happenings in Parliament on Friday, November 26, 2021, the Asante Akyem MP averred that the act by the Speaker of Parliament was a breach of the constitution.
According to him, the constitution indicates that whoever breaches the laws of the House [Parliament] the citizens and law makers have the right to “restore it”.
“What has been done which we see as a breach of the constitution is an attempt to undermine the constitution and per the provision or the article, we have to seek the order of the Supreme Court to correct the anomaly”.
Andy Appiah-Kubi
Touching on correcting the anomaly, he noted that, the Article 3 of the constitution states that, in the event that that person is recalcitrant and doesn’t want to listen to the Supreme Court, there is a schedule of punishment available to him or her.
Andy Appiah-Kubi, however, mentioned that he would want to consider the decision by the Speaker with regards to what happened in Parliament as an over sight due to the situation he found himself in during the sitting.
“I don’t want to see it as a deliberate action because having read article 102 which talks about the quorum of Parliament and the event of other businesses of the house, which is to guide you in the event of decision making, he ignored all that”.
Andy Appiah-Kubi
Speaker should be given benefit of doubt
Mr. Appiah-Kubi averred that the Speaker should be given the benefit of doubt since his decision may have been inadvertent.
“But for you to read [Article] 102 and not read 104, having being in Parliament for the most part of your life and the user of these standing orders all these years, you cannot tell us you don’t know the rules of all these engagements in Parliament. But like I said, let’s give him the benefit of doubt because I don’t know what happened until he comes to explain”.
Andy Appiah-Kubi
What happened, he stated, is a constitutional breach and since the constitution states that any breach is a nullity, then the act by the Speaker is also a nullity.
“But on the face of the records, we need to let the Hansard capture that it has been a nullity”.
Andy Appiah-Kubi
He iterated that with the decision taken by Parliament to reject the 2022 Budget, one of the ways to resolve the issue is to go to court for a declaration to quash the decision made by Parliament. He, therefore, called on the Speaker to be mindful of certain articles in the constitutions to help guide him.
Mr. Appiah-Kubi’s comments follow the rejection of the 2022 budget presented by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, amidst strong protest by the majority side of the house which saw them stage a walkout before the votes.
