Big face-off in Parliament on Tuesday over “illegal” rejection of 2022 Budget
The Majority walkout, which many criticised and ridiculed as the NPP running away from its own Budget, may turn out to be strategic
By 10am of Tuesday 30 November 2021, when Parliament reconvenes, the parliamentary Hansard will still reflect how proceedings ended last Friday. That Parliament voted to reject the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of the Republic of Ghana.
Members of Parliament from the ruling party decided to walk out of the chamber before the Speaker put the question to approve or reject the 2022 Budget to the House, leaving it to the 137 MPs from the opposition National Democratic Congress to vote a resounding No. The boycott, which was roundly rejected as bizarre, may turn out to be a masterstroke.
Shortly afterwards, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, gave a hint of this when he addressed the press and gave notice that what the Speaker did in allowing the vote was unconstitutional and his side would take steps to nullify the “false” rejection of the 2022 Budget.
Questions of deputy Speakers
New Patriotic Party MPs are expected to make their move on Tuesday. Their case is that at the time the Speaker proposed the question, there were not up to 138 parliamentarians present to vote, as required by law.
Article 104(1) states: “Except as otherwise provided in this constitution, matters in Parliament shall be determined by the votes of the majority of members present and voting, with at least half of all the members of Parliament present.”
Parliament as currently constituted has 137 NPP MPs, 137 NDC MPs and one independent MP, who sits with the ruling party, making the NPP the Majority group. After putting the 2022 Budget to a vote on Friday, the Speaker himself announced the results as “137:0”. This appears to put the matter beyond any doubt in terms of the numbers present at the material time.
To reinforce the point of needing at least half of the members in the House before the question could be put, 109(1) of the Standing Orders of Parliament reads, adding more flesh to Article 104: “No question for decision in the House shall be proposed for determination unless there are present in the House not less than one half of all the Members of the House, and, except otherwise provided in the Constitution, the question proposed shall be determined by the majority of the votes of the Members present and voting.”
On Saturday, the Speaker reportedly flew to Dubai to continue with chemotherapy treatment he is receiving for cancer. He is not expected to return until Tuesday 14 December 2021. This means that one of the two deputies – Joseph Osei-Owusu, MP, the First Deputy Speaker, and Andrew Asiamah Amoako, the Second Deputy Speaker – will have to preside at any given sitting.
The question that students of parliamentary proceedings and constitutional law are asking is this: will the sitting arrangements not deny the Majority side an MP, leaving both sides with 137 MPs each, excluding the person presiding? How then does the Majority intend to come by a substantive motion to overturn last Friday’s decision, even if all 138 Majority Caucus MPs are present?
Article 102 of the constitution says, “A quorum of Parliament, apart from the person presiding, shall be one-third of all the members of Parliament.”
However, when it comes to proposing a question to be voted on, the constitution calls for a bigger presence: at least 50% of the total membership of the House. In voting, there are three options, Yes, No and Abstention, with the Nos and Abstentions usually counted together.
Moreover, Article 104(2) says: “The Speaker shall have neither an original nor casting vote.” In countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, India and Canada, where the Speaker is a Member of Parliament, the constitution allows such a speaker to have a casting vote when there is a tie.
Ready for a showdown
However, in Ghana, where the Speaker is not an MP, the constitution grants no such privilege, stressing further under Article 104(3): “Where the votes on any motion are equal it shall be taken to be lost.”
Article 109(2) of the Standing Orders restates this point in direct reference to the Speaker: “Mr Speaker shall have neither an original nor a casting vote and if upon any question before the House the votes are equally divided the motion shall be lost.”
Order 109(3), which deals with deputy Speakers, reads: “A deputy Speaker or any other Member presiding shall not retain his original vote while presiding.” The “original vote” refers to the inherent right to vote which every MP has by dint of being a representative of his constituents.
Even though the Standing Orders are silent on a deputy Speaker (who is an MP) having a casting vote, it is very clear that the MP, as a person presiding, cannot exercise his original vote as an MP during the time that he is presiding actively over proceedings.
What all this means is that Tuesday’s showdown may be even more dramatic than the standoff Ghanaians witnessed Friday, and perhaps akin to the drama in the early hours of 7 January, which led to the Speaker nominee of the ruling party being rejected and that of the opposition NDC being sworn in.
Running away or tactical retreat?
Friday’s walkout by the Majority, which was criticised by many and ridiculed by others as “running away from their own Budget”, may turn out to have been strategic after all, if indeed it works out to be the one factor that denied the Minority the numbers mandatory to propose a question and vote on it conclusively.
Indeed, Asaase News is reliably informed that by Friday, the New Patriotic Party was one MP short, and that for the Majority side to have remained in the chamber would have legitimised the inevitable No votes against the 2022 Budget.
The walkout by the Majority side was ostensibly triggered by the decision of the Speaker, Right Honourable Alban Bagbin, to walk the Finance Minister out before a headcount on the Speakers decision to put before the House a vote on a request by the minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to suspend plenary proceedings on the Budget.
This was to allow the Finance Minister more time to engage the leadership of both sides with a view to addressing unresolved concerns over aspects of the Budget. Notable among these was the contentious introduction of a new tax, the E-Levy, at 1.75% on all electronic transactions above the value of GHC100, including mobile money transfers.
Wilberforce Asare
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