Afenyo-Markin
The Member of Parliament for the Effutu Constituency, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has described the Minority’s decision of walking out during the passage of the Electronic Transfer Levy Bill (E-Levy) as unnecessary since such decisions do not affect parliamentary business.
Speaking on Joy FM’s current affairs and news analysis programme ‘News File’ last Saturday, he said that though the Minority leader announced to the House that they were unable to participate in the debate for the passage of the E-Levy, they never raised the issue of a quorum.
He said, “If you say that you have nothing to do with the process but you sit in or walk out, it does not affect the business of the day because it is within their democratic right as Minority to leave the chamber.” According to him, the argument by the Minority that the number of MP’s present on the day fell short of the required number could be attributed to failure by the Minority to appreciate the ruling by the Supreme Court on the budget in December last year.
He stated, “They tried to compare what happened in December but at that time there was a division, a division has been called and Mr. Speaker has ruled on it and they were doing the counting.”
The MP, who is also the Majority leader, stated that apart from the passage of the E-Levy, other acts such as the amendment of the Students Loan Trust Act and the amendment of the Criminal Offences Act were considered and amended.
He, therefore, questioned the Minority leader’s position on a voting quorum after participating in other businesses for the day with about 20 members present.
“They participated in the proceedings, are they saying that when we were doing that, there was no issue of a quorum? I don’t really understand them because they think that by merely walking out they will ambush us so that we will lack quorum,” he stated.
Commenting on the Minority’s complaint to the public of been taken by surprise by the unexpected consideration of the E-Levy, he said that Parliament in its usual business, followed due processes as required by their procedures.
He emphasised, “We never smuggled anything in, we never surprised them. Every Friday we read the business statement which has proposals for the ensuing week.”
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah