Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has indicted The Speaker of supervising chaos in Parliament by intentionally allowing the Minority to perpetuate lawlessness and a needless provocation in the Chamber.
He said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority, on their own, went to the Chamber and lawlessly removed the name tags of the Majority Members from the seats positioned at the right side of Mr. Speaker and then occupied those seats just to cause chaos.
Afenyo-Markin, addressing journalists in Parliament yesterday said it remains a publicly known fact that an attempt by Speaker Alban Bagbin to declare four Parliamentary seats vacant which would have made the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Caucus become the Majority has failed because the Supreme Court has ruled the decision should be frozen and put on hold.
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The Majority Leader said based on this ruling by the Supreme Court, he sees no reason why Speaker Bagbin would continue to allow the Minority Caucus to occupy the side of the Chamber which is traditionally reserved for the Majority.
The Majority Leader said whereas Speaker Bagbin says in one breath that he has not given a ruling to declare any seat vacant, his own lawyer, Thaddeus Sory is in court, insisting on the instruction that Speaker Bagbin truly gave a ruling and that the said seats were by implications of the ruling, vacant.
Afenyo-Markin said all attempts by he himself in his capacity as Majority Leader, attempts by the Peace Council, attempts by the Council of State and other highly placed notables to dialogue with Mr. Speaker to use amicable means to get the Minority return to their appropriate side of the Chamber has failed because The Speaker himself is okay with the misunderstanding and chaos.
The Majority Leader gave further insight:
“at a pre sitting meeting after the Supreme Court ruling he (The Speaker) said he had not declared the NDC as Majority neither had he expressed a Constitutional opinion on those four individuals (MPs) and that what he did amounted to an opinion that he expressed on the statement by Hon. Cassiel Ato Forson.
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“At the said pre sitting meeting, I, on behalf of my colleagues the Majority, enquired from Mr. Speaker whether our friends from the Minority who have decided to sit on his right would be allowed by him to sit there because that was not their rightful place in view of his own admission that he had not proclaimed them as such nor declared them as such. Speaker responded that indeed sitting arrangements of Parliament was the responsibility of the Clerk to Parliament”. Afenyo-Markin noted.
He said he went ahead to check from the Clerk why the NDC Minority Caucus has taken over the seats meant for the Majority Caucus but the Clerk said he had also not given such a directive
“So if he (The Speaker) claims he had not made a ruling, then why is he supervising chaos in the House? What Mr. Speaker did today amounts to supervising chaos and bringing the image of democracy into disrepute”, Afenyo-Markin noted.
Afenyo-Markin continued: “Clearly, the NDC is on a warpath. They want confusion in this country, they want lawlessness n this country and all these are being supervised by Mr. Speaker; it is sad it is very sad and I would want to entreat you the media to call the NDC out, to call Mr. Speaker out….When in the history of this Parliament since 1992 did a statement metamorphose into motion which now would require a ruling. Mr. Speaker is setting the country on fire. Yesterday, we were disappointed with is non-reconciliatory posture during his press conference. Indeed we the Majority Caucus call on Mr. Speaker one more time to demonstrate statesmanship.
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“…There are things that we cannot say into the camera but Mr. Speaker is hurting democracy. What Mr. Speaker is doing is to rehearse what the NDC is likely to do should they lose power; to cause chaos to bring confusion. How can Mr. Speaker say that he respects the Constitution but he would not subject himself to the dictates of the Judiciary. How can you say that the Judiciary is in collusion with the Presient and you mention the President as an individual. How?
“What Mr. Speaker is doing is in bad faith. First of all he subjected himself to the Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and after losing at the Supreme Court, he turns round to attack the Supreme Court.
“A true democrat would respect the rule of law and that is why we decided to respect him. Our tradition as NPP is to respect the rule of law and that is why we decided to respect him. It is out of deference to Mr. Speaker that is why we did not enter the chamber; that we should share in that chaos theater with them? Never; we would not. NPP would not.
“Don’t be swayed by their chaos and by their propaganda. The Chaos they started is what they want to end with and we would not allow that”, Afenyo-Markin added.
