There was absolute chaos in the chamber of Ghana’s Parliament among some Members of Parliament (MPs) from both the Majority and Minority sides over the consideration of e-levy as certificate of urgency.
Legislators were seen openly throwing blows at each other as Minority once again tried to snatch the speaker’s chair while the Majority side prevented them.
Others were heard hurling insults on each other and screaming that ‘we will not allow him to vote. Democracy must prevail and democracy must be protect. We’ll not allow.’
The pandemonium occurred when the Minority MPs got angry that the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu, who was sitting in for the Speaker, wanted to step down from his seat for the Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Asiamah Amoako, who had already cast his vote to take over.
The Minority believed that Mr Osei Owusu wanted to cast a vote as well, a move they did not agree with hence the insistance by the Minority side for the Deputy Speaker not to cast his vote.
This led to a share use of pressure and force to get the chair so that the first deputy speaker will not be counted as a member of parliament.
However, after some few minutes normalcy returned as leadership of both sides of the house went to conclave to engage on the matter after the house was grinded to a halt.
Earlier Dominic Anyine, MP for Bolgatanga East said the first deputy speaker would not be allowed to vote.
However, Ambros Dery, MP for Nandom insisted that the first deputy speaker was qualified to be counted.
Majority in a press conference earlier accused Speaker of Parliament, Alban S.K Bagbin of sabotage because he had abandoned the house when he was supposed to chair affairs.
According to the Majority caucus, the absence of Bagbin forced the second deputy speaker, Andrews Amoako Asiamah to preside over the sitting and that means a possible loss of one vote for them.
Alexander Afenyo Markin, the Deputy Majority Leader while addressing the press said the absence of Alban Bagbin throughout the first part of the sitting appears to be part of a grand plan by the the minority to frustrate the approval of the bill.
“We will not proceed to take decisons without Mr. Speaker. We need him in the House because by the technicalities of our own procedures, one of our people would have to sit in and therefore he will not have the opportunity to have his right of voting as a member. Mr. Speaker must show leadership in parliament,” he said.
Mr. Markin said the majority side was not given any information about the whereabouts of Alban Bagbin and so they wanted him to immediately return to the House.
“We have no information as to the whereabouts of Mr. Speaker. We see this as a grand political partisan design by the minority group to frustrate us, and we don’t’ want to suggest that Mr. Speaker is unavoidably absent to frustrate government business. We expect Mr. Speaker to be present. We have our numbers, and we are ready to do government business. We can’t be cajoled into pettiness because we see this as a strategy by the minority to create a standoff,” he added.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, had described the controversial e-levy bill as ‘technically incompetent’ insisting that his side will fiercely resist it.
Haruna Iddrisu in a subsequent press briefing said his side will not endorse the bill because it is fraught with many challenges.
He said it was wrong for the bill to suggest that for every transfer of above GHS100, the sender will be charged and in cases where the same amount is transferred to different people that sender will be charged multiple times.
“Their grand deception will fail. I have the technical competence in the telecom and communications sector. What the telecos are charging is on fees and not transactions. The government is deceiving them to lower their fee charges by 0.25% and that makes up for what the 1.75% they want to introduce. No telco charges on transactions. They only charge transaction fees of 1% of transfers. I think that technically, this bill is incompetent and they must consult well,” he said.
By Vincent Kubi