The Supreme Court has ruled that a Deputy Speaker of Parliament, or any other member of the legisture presiding over business of the House, does not lose his or her right to vote while presiding.
Such a Speaker or Member can also be counted as part of the quorum for decision making in the House under article 104(1) of the 1992 Constitution.
The Court, consequently, struck down Order 109 (3) of the Standing Orders of Parliament, describing it as “unconstitutional”.
The Order provides that a Deputy Speaker or any other member of Parliament presiding over the business of the House shall not retain his or her original vote while presiding.
Instructively, the Supreme Court has upheld Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei-Owusu’s decision to count himself as forming quorum in the lead-up to the controversial approval of the Government’s 2022 Budget.
The landmark judgment was given in a case brought by a law professor, Justice Abdulai contesting the Deputy Speaker’s decision to count himself as forming quorum for a vote on the budget.
In his application for constitutional interpretation, Justice Abdulai asked among other things that: “upon a true and proper interpretation of Articles 102 and 104(1) of the 1992 constitution, a Speaker or any other person presiding over Parliament cannot be said to be part of the members present for the purposes of decision-making. Upon a true and proper interpretation of Articles 102 and 104(1), the First and Second Deputy Speakers, when presiding over Parliament, have the same authority as the Speaker of Parliament and can therefore not be counted as MPs present for the purposes of making a decision in accordance with Article 104(1) of the 1992 constitution.”
Consequent upon these, he asked the Supreme Court to declare that the decision taken on 30 November 2021 to approve the 2022 Budget amounts to a nullity and is of no effect.
The 7-Member Supreme Court, however, held that a Member-Speaker is entitled to be counted for purposes of quorum, for doing business, and to vote in the business of the House (even while presiding).
The Supreme Court was composed of Justices Jones Dotse as President, Nene Amegatcher, Prof. Ashie Kotei, Mariama Owusu, Avril Lovelace Johnson, Clemence Honyenuga and Yonny Kulendi.
Their judgment will be lodged with the Supreme Court Registry on or before Friday, March 11, 2022.
The ruling affirms the position of the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu, that he did nothing wrong by voting to approve the 2022 budget, although he was presiding as speaker in the stead of Alban Bagbin.
On November 30, last year, Mr. Osei-Owusu who is also the elected Member of Parliament for Bekwai (NPP) in the Ashanti Region, presided over an NPP-sided House to overturn an earlier vote of the House rejecting Government’s 2022 Budget.
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