The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has accused the Executive and Judiciary arms of government of working to undermine the authority of Parliament.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, the Speaker said recent developments in the legislature poses a challenge to the relevance of parliament in the democratic space.
“Recent acts of the Judiciary and the Executive – and I see them as interference in the workings of parliament – pose a direct challenge to the essence, jurisdiction, authority, and powers of the esteem institution of parliament which is the repository of the sovereign will of the people.
“It is increasingly becoming clear that the judiciary and the executive are seemingly colluding to weaken parliament,” he alleged.
Parliament has been in abeyance for weeks now following the declaration of four seats vacant by the Speaker a fortnight ago.
The Speaker’s declaration, however, was set aside by the Supreme Court for a true and proper interpretation of provisions of Article 97 of the 1992 Constitution on the declaration of seats vacant raising questions of constitutional crisis.
The brouhaha, the Speaker said, may be likened to a power play between the arms of government and has the potential to undermine Ghana’s democracy and the authority of Legislature.
According to him, the era where parliament was the rubber-stamp of the executive was over with the election of a hung parliament at the polls in 2020.
Despite the difficult situation the composition of Parliament presented, he said stakeholders have devised strategies to ensure government business was not interrupted.
Worrying, he said, was the fact that some of the actions that seek to undermine the legislature are initiated by the MPs themselves.
“These might be one of the reasons parliament and MPs are not respected and treated with disdain…as exhibited by the President’s refusal to receive the LGBT bill passed by parliament.
“The judiciary is supportive of this conduct by the receipt and processing of a suit on this matter. These are dangerous precedents in our democratic journey. Both the President and the judiciary have sinned against the constitution and must seek the opportunity to confess and repent to be forgiven,” the Speaker stated.
The Speaker further revealed that he had directed the Clerk to Parliament to retransmit the Proper Human Sexual Right and Family Values Bill to the president for assent.
He feared that if the trend was not reversed, the precedent would be injurious to future growth and development of Ghana’s democracy.
“I’m confident the battles we fighting today will make our democracy stronger and more vibrant in the future,” he stressed.
A parliament that understands, reflects and embodies the will of the people and defends its constitutional prerogatives, the Speaker said only works in the interest of Ghana and Ghanaians and not a rubber-stamp parliament “subservient to the whims and caprices of the executive and the judiciary”.
Parliament, around which democracy revolves, the Speaker said, must and would be resolute in the face of attempts to undermine it to perform its legislative and indispensable function of holding the President and executive to account.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
