The seats must be declared vacant - Ghanaians tell Speaker Bagbin

"The right thing must be done," says some Ghanaians that GhanaWeb spoke to concerning the current brouhaha surrounding the declaration of four seats vacant after the Members of Parliament (MPs) occupying these seats changed their political affiliations.

The majority of students and staff of the University of Ghana, Legon, who spoke to GhanaWeb’s Ishmael Batoma, indicated that once the laws of the country state that MPs who change their political affiliation must lose their seats, that must happen.

Some of those urging the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, to declare four seats vacant pointed to the declaration of the Fomena seat vacant by the then Speaker of Parliament, Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye, under the same circumstance.

A male student of the university said, “It is a strategic move by Haruna Iddrisu… it is about a fight for power, it is a simple tactic but he is not wrong too, the law says that if you are going independent you have to vacate your seat because you came on the ticket of a party.”

A staff member of the university also argued, “For me, I think once a precedent has been set and Parliament are masters of their own laws, if the Speaker thinks it is appropriate to go by the same principles which have been set already, he can go ahead and do it (declare the seats vacant).”

He added, “We are all testing the laws, we are a developing democracy. So, we continue to test the law and see what works appropriately.”

A few of the people who spoke to GhanaWeb also indicated that the Speaker of Parliament should allow the affected MPs to complete their terms because of the nearness of the 2024 general elections.

One student argued that the declaration of the seats vacant would have no impact because of the closeness of the December 7, 2024 general elections.

“I think it is not right to declare those seats vacant because if those MPs have decided to go as independent candidates, they are still MPs in the name of those political parties… Even if the seats are declared vacant, Parliament cannot take any major decision because the processes are so long and it is just a few months to elections, so it would not even be necessary to declare the seats vacant,” she said.

MPs for Agona West and Suhum, who are members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), filed their nominations to contest in the 2024 parliamentary election as independent candidates.

The independent MP for Fomena has also filed his nomination to contest in the election on the ticket of the NPP, and the Amenfi Central MP, a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), also filed his nomination to contest as an independent candidate.

Article 97 [1(g) & (h)] of the 1992 Constitution states that “a member of Parliament shall vacate his seat in Parliament if he leaves the party of which he was a member at the time of his election to Parliament to join another party or seeks to remain in Parliament as an independent member; or if he was elected a member of Parliament as an independent candidate and joins a political party.”

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