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The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has assured Ghanaians that there is no constitutional crisis in the country.
He said Parliament was alive and working, a reason Ghanaians must not allow themselves to be misled, misinformed or disinformed.
“The democratic system we adopted and enacted, as captured in the 1992 Constitution and fleshed out in various laws, processes, procedures and practices, is what has been triggered and it is working. Let us allow it to work,” he said.
Shedding light on the consequences of litigation on proceedings of Parliament at the Speaker’s media briefing in Parliament House in A yesterday, Mr Bagbin said democracy was about the rule of law and it must be allowed to work.
“The democratic system we adopted and enacted recognises that in the course of operationalising the system, disagreements will occur and challenges and problems will arise”.
“The system has put in place mechanisms, structures and institutions, processes, procedures and rules to follow and apply to resolve the disagreement, convert the challenges into opportunities and provide solutions to the problems.”
“This is what is being pursued and applied. There is no constitutional crisis in the country,” Mr Bagbin said.
The Speaker said Parliament was alive and working and it had not been dissolved, prorogued, prohibited, suspended or terminated.
He said the plenary sitting and meetings of Parliament were adjourned indefinitely due to the lack of a quorum to take decisions as a result of a walkout staged by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) members who were unavailable because of a disagreement.
The cause of the disagreement, which led to a disorder, had to be resolved with time and engagement of many more leaders than those in Parliament.
“The adjournment was done by the lawful authority, the Speaker of Parliament. Let us stop pressing the panic buttons and fear- mongering and allow the system to work.
“Anger and indecent language rather inflame the situation. There can be no democracy without patience, tolerance, discipline, collaboration, the love for one another and consensus building,” he said.
Having served Parliament and the people of Ghana continuously for over 32 years as a politician and over 42 years as a public servant, Mr Bagbin said he cherished the role Parliament played in Ghana’s democracy.
“And my mission is to leave Parliament a stronger institution than I met it,” he said.
Throwing light on what triggered the recent disagreement in Parliament, he said following a statement by the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, on a matter he considered to be of urgent public importance on the October 15, 2024, and comments by other members, he communicated the findings of his enquiry into the matter.
As the Speaker of the House, he said, on October 17 2024, the contents of his communication were misconstrued to be a ruling.
He said the Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, disagreed vehemently with the contents of his communication and proceeded to advance an earlier action he had commenced in the Supreme Court (SC) on the October 15, 2024, to prevent the Speaker from receiving and making any pronouncement on the subject matter of the statement made by Dr Forson, until the final determination of the matter by the Supreme Court.
Mr Bagbin said the suit before the SC raised not just legal questions but, more importantly, had profound implications for Ghana’s democratic system of governance.
While many legal arguments had been advanced in and out of the SC, he said, he recognised the fact that the connected political and governance implications had not been addressed sufficiently to enrich the national discourse.
“It is my considered view this should also be vigorously articulated to give a holistic approach to resolving the issue,” the Speaker said.
Likening the current brouhaha to a “power play between the arms of government”, Mr Bagbin said it had the potential to undermine “our democracy and authority of Parliament.”
“It could subvert Ghana’s constitutional order and the democratic system Ghanaians have toiled, sacrificed their lives and shed blood to establish for decades,” he said.
The Speaker pointed out that the recent acts of the Judiciary and the Executive interference in the working of Parliament posed a direct challenge to the essence, jurisdiction, authority, powers and functioning of the esteemed institution of Parliament, which was the repository of the sovereign will of Ghanaians.
“It is becoming increasingly clear the Judiciary and the Executive are seemingly colluding to weaken Parliament,” the Speaker said.
Mr Bagbin added that the powers of the Judiciary ended where the “nose of the Parliament starts”, adding that the Constitution was very clear on freedom of speech and of proceedings of Parliament, citing Articles 115 and 116.
Article 115 says: “There shall be freedom of speech, debate and proceedings in Parliament and that freedom shall not be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament”.
Additionally, Article 116 states that: “Subject to the provisions of this article, but without prejudice to the general effect of Article 115 of this Constitution, civil or criminal proceedings shall not be initiated against a Member of Parliament in any Court or place out of Parliament for any matter or thing brought by him in or before Parliament by petition, Bill, motion or otherwise.”
Those constitutional provisions, he said, meant that happenings in Parliament must remain in Parliament.
“So, the courts must, and have always been hesitant to interfere in the proceedings and decisions of Parliament.
“In the celebrated case of Tuffour and the Attorney-General, the Supreme Court affirmed that happenings in parliament are a closed book,” Mr Bagbin said.
Despite those provisions, he said the courts were replete with debates and proceedings of Parliament.
He noted that the most worrying was that those proceedings were initiated by some Members of Parliament and even leaders of Parliament who ought to know better. He expressed worry over how parliamentarians who were to be loyal to Parliament rather ran to the SC at the slightest opportunity to use the court to undermine Parliament.
“This might be one of the reasons Parliament and MPs are not respected and treated with disdain.
“This was exhibited by the President's refusal to even receive the LGBTQ+ Bill duly processed and passed by Parliament,” Mr Bagbin averred.
“The Judiciary is supportive of such a conduct by the receipt and processing of a suit on this subject matter. These are dangerous precedents in our democratic journey,” he added.
“The President and the Judiciary have sinned against the Constitution and must seek the opportunity to confess and repent to be forgiven,” he said.
The Speaker, therefore, expressed the hope that the matter before the SC could be settled within Parliament through mature deliberations and compromises.
“I respectfully call on the SC to apply the same swiftness with which ex parte motion in the instant matter was granted to the case involving the President’s refusal to receive the Human Rights and Family Values Bill passed by Parliament which has been pending before the same court for almost a year without being heard,” he said.
Asked where the two caucuses would sit during Thursday’s sitting, Mr Bagbin said it was not part of the duty of the Speaker to decide where an MP or a caucus should sit in the House.
“Our Parliament is not arranged in the form of government and opposition and Ghana did not like the term opposition. So, we decided to adopt the term from the USA with Majority and Minority.
“So, you can even sit anywhere but the numbers determine who is Majority and who is Minority,” he said, explaining that in Ghana’s Parliament those considered the Majority sat at the right side of the Speaker and Minority on the left side.
