Professor Stephen Kweku Asare, who is ordinarily known as Kwaku Azar has asked the clerk of Ghana’s parliament to write to The Electoral Commission declaring seats of absentee Mps vacant.
During an interview on Joy FM, Kwaku Azar insisted that the Clerk’s inability to declare the seats vacant will be a breach of Article 97 of The Ghanaian Constitution. The article which was backed by a 2018 Supreme Court ruling demands that an mp automatically vacates his or her seats, if they’ve been absent for 15 continuous days without permission.
He further revealed that, the clerk in doing contrary to what he’s said, shall be acting in contempt of court order.”When it comes to being absent in Parliament, people start saying ‘let’s be gracious and empathetic.’ But we must either be a nation of law, or we are not.”
“So I think the Clerk should, on Monday, write to the Electoral Commission that any MP, not just Adwoa [Safo] who has been absent for more than 15 days, have vacated the seat, and a by-election should be held,” Kwaku Azar explained.
The professor’s comments comes after different views on absenteeism has be voiced out by several politicians. Some NPP members and lawmakers have recently demanded the seat of Dome-Kwabenya Mp to be declared vacant. While some members of the minority caucus are against such demands.
Members of the NPP suggests Adwoa Safo; Mp for Dome-Kwabenya who has been absent from parliament for more than 15 continuous days is holding the party to ransome over the e-levy bill.
