President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the Supreme Court’s decision on the voting rights of Deputy Speakers of Parliament cannot be described as judicial interference in the work of Parliament.
President Akufo-Addo said suggesting that Parliament is beyond the scrutiny of the Supreme Court is to say that Parliament is a law onto itself.
On Wednesday March 9, 2022, a seven-member panel presided over by Justice Jones Dotse, ruled that the decision by the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, and NPP MP for Bekwai, to count himself to form a quorum at the sitting of Parliament on December 1, 2021, to overturn the rejection of the budget by the House, on November 27, was valid.
The Court, therefore, affirmed the approval of the 2022 budget without the participation National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament.
A private legal practitioner, Justice Abdulai filed the case against the Attorney General at the Supreme Court to seek interpretation on Articles 102 and 104 of the 1992 Constitution and to declare the action of Mr Osei Owusu, unconstitutional.
According to Article 102 of the 1992 Constitution, “A quorum in Parliament, apart from the person presiding, shall be one-third of all members in Parliament.”
Article 104 (1) of the Constitution stipulates that “Except otherwise provided in the Constitution, matters in Parliament shall be determined by the votes of the majority of members present and voting, with at least half of all members of Parliament present.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the Dubai Expo 2020, President Akufo-Addo said those criticising the Court and describing its decision as an interference in the work of Parliament had “actually not taken the time to read the Constitution of our country. It says so in black and white.”
“The legislative powers of the State, which is vested in Parliament, is subject to the provisions of the Constitution. All organs of the Ghanaian State, including me as the Head of the Executive, we are all subject to the teachings of the Constitution,” the President said.
The President said no body was above the fundamental laws of the land. “It will lead to the very matter that we have striven so long to avoid—the concentration of unregulated power in our state – we don’t want that. And we brought about this Constitution not to allow that to reoccur.”
On the issue that Parliament is not beyond the scrutiny of the Supreme Court regarding issues of interpretation, the President said, “the whole principle of judicial review was developed by the judges, both in America and England, to be able to check the activities of Parliament.”
President Akufo-Addo said the first major constitutional case, which looked at the work of Parliament was in the case Tuffuor vs Attorney General, where the decision of Parliament to subject the then Chief Justice, the late Frederick Kwesi Apaloo, to a vetting process in Parliament had been expressly forbidden by the Constitution.
“And that is the reason why the late Dr. Amoako Tuffuor took the matter to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court made it quite clear that all the activities of all the institutions of our Republic that violate the Constitution are subject to the powers of the Court and to the Declarations of the Court,” he said.
“I want to repeat it, as President, Head of the Executive, I am subject to the Constitution and to the law. I cannot set myself above it. Everybody has his remit, but those remits are subject to the operations of Constitution, and I am happy that the Constitution has been so declared in such an emphatic manner by the Supreme Court, I support the Supreme Court to continue to do its work.”
Rex Mainoo Yeboah, ISD
