2024 Budget approval rescheduled to December 7

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has decided to reschedule the approval of the 2024 budget to Thursday 7, 2023.

This decision comes after the Majority Caucus chose to abandon Parliament on Thursday, November 30.

At today's sitting, only four MPs from the Majority side are in the House.

These Members of Parliament are the leadership of the side: Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensa-Bonsu; Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, the Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh Dompreh; and the Deputy Chief Whip, Habib Iddrisu.

It will be recalled that GhanaWeb's Nimatu Yakubu Atouyese reported that the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, had to suspend sitting on Wednesday, November 29, when the House concluded debates on the budget, and was supposed to subsequently vote to pass the bill.

However, there was moment when the Speaker sought to rule on the voice vote in favour of those who said the ‘Ayes’ but he was timeously challenged by the Deputy Minority Leader, Emmanuel Armarh Kofi Buah.

Originally, Parliament was set to conduct a headcount for the approval of the 2024 budget on the same day, November 30, 2023.

In his challenge, he disagreed that Bagbin should go with the voice vote, but rather use a headcount instead.

The Speaker of Parliament then agreed to it, but that started another long and tensed moment in the House, with MPs from the Majority side, equally objecting to the suggestion by their colleague Leader on the other side.

With time, as tempers flared, the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, led a surprise walkout from the House, followed by his other colleagues.

Alban Bagbin had to eventually suspended sitting altogether.

It is yet to be seen if that determination on the status of the budget will be made on Thursday, November 30.

Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.

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