The minority leader in parliament; Haruna Iddrisu as his response to Supreme Court’s ruling stated that the ruling is to interfere in parliament’s business and also to support the infamous e-levy bill.
The Supreme Court’s verdict which validates Joe Wise voting while presiding as speaker would allow subsequent deputy speakers to do similar in cases where they are to preside. The ruling squashes a private legal practitioner’s petition asking the court to declare the passage of the 2022 budget as false and unconstitutional.
“Our attention has been drawn to a very disappointing ruling of the Supreme Court of Ghana with more or less amounts to judicial interference in time-tested Parliamentary practice and established conventions. Everywhere in the world, in civilized democracies including the United Kingdom, the presiding officer’s vote is discounted, so it’s not for nothing that Article 102 provides that ‘a person presiding shall have no original nor casting vote’.”
“judicial support for e-levy and nothing more, judicial support for a struggling economy in distress and a judicial support for the restoration of a matter that they have said is constitutional, is repugnant to the provisions of 102 and 104”. he said to the media.
The Supreme Court of Ghana has therefore interpreted the Constitution and it’s ruling declares that Article 103 and 104 permits a deputy speaker of Parliament to vote while presiding as speaker. The court was presided over by Justice Jones Dotse.
