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Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) caucus, has expressed disapproval of Speaker of the House Alban Bagbin’s position on the House’s seating arrangement.
He believes that by permitting the National Democratic Congress (NDC) caucus to hold the majority side of the House, which is not their proper position, the Speaker is causing chaos in Parliament.
On Thursday, November 7, Mr. Afenyo-Markin addressed the media in Parliament and mentioned that Speaker Bagbin had said in his press conference on Wednesday that he had not made a decision to declare four parliamentary seats vacant but that it was a formal notification to the House.
“If he claims that what he did was a formal communication in response to a statement from the Minority leader, then why is he supervising chaos in the House,” he questioned.
“What Mr Speaker did today amount to supervising chaos and bringing the image of democracy to disrepute,” Mr Afenyo-Markin added.
The Speaker said that he had not declared the NDC MPs to be the majority when Mr. Afenyo-Markin asked him about the seating arrangement and whether he had given them permission to sit on the majority side of the House.
According to him, the Speaker also stated that the Clerk to Parliament was in charge of assigning seats in the House.
“This took me to the next step of inquiring from the Clerk whether he allowed the NDC Minority to sit on our seats, he said indeed we (NPP) had our name tags on those seats we already occupied and that was not him who did that,” he explained.
The NPP leader continued; “So obviously, one was expecting Mr Speaker to direct the NDC to do the right thing, but he refused.”
Following the Speaker’s decision to adjourn the House indefinitely on Thursday, November 7, due to the absence of NPP MPs, Mr. Afenyo-Markin’s remarks were made.
Speaker Bagbin said that the House could not reach the quorum needed to make decisions without the NPP MPs present, and that legislative action could not move forward if there was no business before the House.
The Speaker’s decision to declare four MP seats empty meant that the NDC MPs once again held the majority side of the House, claiming to be the majority party. This is why the NPP MPs were absent from Parliament.
Mr. Afenyo-Markin added that Speaker Bagbin had agreed to instruct the NDC MPs to sit on the minority side after consulting with the Council of State, the Peace Council, and other prominent individuals.
“The Council of State held meetings with the Speaker and as the majority leader and leader of government business, I had the opportunity to also meet with them. The understanding I had from the meeting was that Mr Speaker would direct the NDC Minority to sit at their right place, which is the left of Mr Speaker.
“I subsequently had a call from the Peace Council. The Peace Council informed me that they had engaged Mr Speaker on the issue before Parliament and Mr Speaker had indeed indicated to them that he had not ruled nor had he proclaimed the NDC Minority and that should Parliament reconvene, the NDC Minority would go back to their seats,” Afenyo-Markin stated.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
