Supreme Court ruling on Deputy Speaker’s voting rights leading us into absurdity – John Mahama

The Supreme Court on Wednesday, March 10, 2022, in a landmark ruling affirmed that a Deputy Speaker presiding over proceedings of Parliament maintains his voting rights, and can be counted in forming a quorum in the house.

The unanimous decision by the seven-member panel also annulled portions of Parliament’s Standing Orders declaring it as unconstitutional.

Former President John Mahama who had earlier described the ruling as shocking but not surprising in a Facebook post, has alluded to an analogy which he says defines the absurdity in the court’s ruling.

“If Deputy Speakers, because they are Members of Parliament, can vote while presiding as Speaker, they could as well be able to participate in any debate on the floor over which they are presiding.

“This is the absurdity into which the Supreme Court ruling leads us,” the former president wrote.

In his immediate reaction to the court’s ruling, former President Mahama on Wednesday said the ruling was an “unfortunate interpretation for convenience that sets a dangerous precedent of judicial interference in Parliamentary procedure for the future.”

Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has disagreed with persons arguing that the Supreme Court’s ruling sets out a precedent of judicial interference in the work of Parliament.

According to the President, it cannot be said that Parliament is beyond the scrutiny of the Apex Court of the land.

“I’m not sure people who are saying this have actually taken the time to read the Constitution of our country. It says so in black and white. The legislative powers of the State, which is vested in Parliament, are subject to the Constitution’s provisions.

“All organs of the Ghanaian State, including me as the Head of the Executive, we are all subject to the teachings of the Constitution,” the President said.

Speaking to the Daily Guide Newspaper’s Charles Takyi Boadu, on Thursday, 10th March 2022, on the sidelines of Dubai Expo 2020, the President added that “there is nobody in the Ghanaian State that is above the fundamental law of the land.

“It will lead to the very matter that we have striven so long to avoid – the concentration of unregulated power in our state – we don’t want that. And we brought about this Constitution to allow that to not reoccur.”