Since January 1993, the rule, practice and convention in Ghana’s Parliament has been that when a Deputy Speaker is presiding over sitting, he cannot count himself as part of members present for purposes of determining a quorum. He cannot also take part in voting.
A Deputy Speaker who is presiding, literally has the powers of the Speaker. In fact, as has been witnessed recently, a deputy speaker who presides even has the power to overturn previous decisions of the Speaker. Recently, on two occasions, the first deputy speaker while presiding, has overturned previous decisions of the speaker.
So given the enormous powers assumed when a deputy speaker takes over the speaker’s chair in the absence of the speaker, the rule had been that a deputy speaker, while presiding, cannot take part in voting. This was certainly to avoid the situation where such a presiding deputy speaker becomes a referee and a player at the same time. It was also to ensure that such a presiding deputy speaker is accorded all the respect by all and enjoys the full powers of the position.
For 29 years, including years that both President Akufo-Addo and President Mahama were in parliament, this parliamentary rule worked fine. There were no problems.
Then get a hung parliament and suddenly, a presiding deputy speaker decides to break the rule. One one occasion, he counted himself to form a quorum for decision making and on another occasion, he decided he was going to take part in voting. The second occasion triggered blows in parliament.
My friend and school mate, Justice Abdulai, decides to challenge the action of the deputy speaker at the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court rules, and does so unanimously with a big revelation. Apparently, for 29 years, our parliament was using an unconstitutional rule and practice. I wonder why for 29 years, none of our law makers including all the big lawyers General, could spot the unconstitutionality of the practice.
In fact, as has been argued, our hung parliament will do us a lot of good. It will help us fix some of the unbroken things. Thank God for a hung parliament.
By Sulemana Braimah