Vote & proceedings errors: Posterity is judging Muntaka – Afenyo-Markin

Deputy Majority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin has said that past utterances by Asawase Member of Parliament Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak are turning round to bite he himself following his anger over the errors in the register for the sitting during the approval of the e-levy in Parliament on Tuesday March 29.

During proceedings in the House on Thursday March 31, a livid Muntaka issued a caution to the Clerk of Parliament to sit up and avoid the mistakes that were made in the register.

He described the errors as unforgivable because in his view, they were deliberate.

“The most unforgivable error that I call it deliberate mistake. With the greatest of respect Mr Speaker, we just want to sound caution to our clerk, it is unjust and the Clerk must sit up because knowing the day and the issues on that day he should have been interested to go through to make sure everything was captured properly,” he said on the floor of the House.

But Mr Afenyo-Markin rose and argued that it was not right for Muntaka to be making allegations against the Clerk when the Clerk does not have the right to respond to him on the floor.

The Effutu lawmaker recounted that when he had an issue with Accra-based Joy FM and raised it on the floor of the Housie, Muntaka argued that Joy FM did not have the right to respond on the floor hence, he Afenyo-Markon was not right in raising the issue there.

In the same manner, Afenyo-Markin said Muntaka’s outburst against the Clerk was not fair.

“I think that this is even a matter for us to sit in conclave with [Mr Speaker] to resolve. You remember I told [Muntaka] posterity will come and judge you.

“When I had an issue with Joy FM, you said in this House that because Joy FM cannot respond to me I should take it easy, can the Clerk get up and speak about the allegation you are making against him? So register your protests but don’t add the Clerk because it is unfair to him because he cannot speak.

The Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin apologized to Members of Parliament for the error. Mr Bagbin admitted that errors did occur and took ultimate responsibility for the mistakes.

He said on the floor on Thursday March 31 that the clerk is only a civil servant and asked that claims that the clerk is partisan be deleted from the records.

“If you look at the attendance register for that day definitely, there are errors, I will take responsibility and apologize to members for these errors,” he said.

Mr Bagbin further indicated that there is no perfect votes and proceedings which is an official report capturing Parliamentary debate, anywhere in the world.

Errors, he said, are anticipated to occur hence, provisions have been made available to correct those mistakes.

He said this after the Minority had said errors were made on the votes of proceedings for Tuesday’s sitting when the e-levy was approved by the House.

The Speaker commended the Minority lawmakers for bringing this up for the necessary corrections to be made.

“There not votes and proceedings anywhere that are perfects,” Mr Bagbin said adding that “…the draft is brought to the house giving opportunity to members to right the wrongs that they have been captured on the votes and proceedings.”

“So rightly you have come and corrected, what you have done is right, we will go through properly and correct the errors,” he said.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawmakers have sued the Attorney General following the approval of the e-levy by Parliament on Tuesday March 29.

The Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu described the approval as illegal and unconstitutional because in their view, the Majority did not have the right numbers to pass it.

“This is a charade,” he said at a press conference in Parliament, adding that “there is no E-levy.”

“The majority of less than 137 conducting businesses only proceeded on illegal and unconstitutional business. Parliament did not have the numbers to take any decision that should binding Parliament and Ghanaians,” he added.

Source: 3news.com|Ghana