Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin
Member of Parliament for Effutu and deputy Minority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin has nailed Minority in Parliament over the suit it has filed at the Supreme Court against the approval of the Electronic Transactions Levy Bill, commonly called E-levy.
According to the deputy Majority Leader, Parliament had the required number for MPs forming quorum when the motion for the passage of the bill was put and approved by Parliament contrary to claim by their colleagues in the Minority.
Following the approval of the bill, the Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawmakers have sued the Attorney General following the approval of the e-levy by Parliament on Tuesday March 29, 2022.
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 be binding Parliament and Ghanaians,” he added.
The minority therefore walked out from the House and decided to sue the Attorney General over the development.
Reports suggest that eight of the minority members were not in the house leading to the walk out.
Some of the relief the Minority is seeking includes “A declaration that on the authority of the Supreme Court case of Justice Abdulai v. Attorney-General, Writ No. J1/07/2|22 dated 9th March 2022, the constitutional quorum for decision-making and voting in Parliament within the meaning and intent of Article 104(1) of the 1992 Constitution is 138 Members of Parliament present in the Chamber of Parliament out of the 275 Members of Parliament; and not 136 Members of Parliament present in the Chamber of Parliament”.
However, responding to questions on Newsfile, a news analysis programme on Joynews monitored by DGN Online, Afenyo-Markin believes that the suit filed by the Minority is a just a smokescreen to please their aggrieved party members.
Contrary to claim by Minority that there was no quorum when the e-levy bill was passed, the Efutu MP stated that there was a quorum hence the Speaker of Parliament did the right thing.
According to him, Parliament, on the day the e-levy was passed, had 274 members because of the annulment of the Assin North elections.
He explained that the Minority members did not have their numbers on that day as the embattled MP for Assin North, James Gyekye Quayson, though in office, was legally barred from entering the House due to the fact that at that material time, his election had been annuled by the Cape Coast High Court and there was no process of appeal before any court of appeal to warrant a stay of the high court judgement.
He continued that this was confirmed by Haruna Iddrisu in his submissions before the Minority left the House, as to the fact that Parliament did not have 275 members but 274.
“You know on that day, the issue of quorum surfaced, Quayson was in the office and they didn’t allow him to come out until the stay of execution process was duly filed. We were also monitoring in Cape Coast, they themselves told him not to come out and he did not.
“At that point, the number was 274 because Quayson election had been nullified and the number for taking decision couldn’t have been 275 because they themselves told Quayson.
“So if you listen to Haruna, Haruna said that now Quayson appeal for stay execution have been properly filed. So Quayson was in Parliament but they stopped him from entering the Chamber because they know that it was going to be illegal and I am telling you that time, at that important material time, our number was 274,” Afenyo-Markin said on the programme.
The Effutu lawmaker stressed that assuming the Minority had 136 members at that time, the quorum for taking such decisions ought to be half of the House and half of the House would, therefore, be 137, not 138.
He strongly believes that Minority cannot argue on the basis that Parliament required 138 to make such a decision since the number of MPs by law at the time, were 274 and not 275.
By Vincent Kubi