Vacant Seats Saga: Mike Oquaye, Alban Bagbin were both wrong – Dr Ishaq Ibrahim

Dr. Ishaq Ibrahim, a communications team member of the New Patriotic Party(NPP) has argued that the current Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin and his Predecessor, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye were all wrong in their ruling by declaring some parliamentary seats vacant.

According to Ishaq Ibrahim, the declaration made by the current Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin was unlawful.

While making reference to Article 99 Clause 1, Dr Ishaq Ibrahim explained that the High Court is the only institution that can declare a seat vacant in the parliament and not the speaker of parliament.

According to him, the speaker and parliamentarians have only been given the power to determine procedures through the standing orders per Article 110 in the constitution.

“Prof Mike Ocquaye was very wrong, he was wrong. He overreached his powers by taking powers of the high court, and also taking powers of interpretations. The current Speaker too is wrong. It’s illogical to say that Prof Mike Ocquaye was wrong, we have to be consistently wrong. That’s illogical”, Dr Ishaq Ibrahim said during a discussion on TV3’s NewDay. Monitored by MyNewsGh.com

According to Dr. Ibrahim, the speaker of parliament or parliamentarians are not the only ones who must ensure the enforcement of the constitution and the rights of every Ghanaian.

A few days ago, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin officially declared four parliamentary seats vacant with barely two months to the election in December.

This ruling means that Ghana’s hung parliament which gave the governing New Patriotic Party a slight upper hand as the Majority side with the support of an Independent Member of Parliament, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, will now tilt towards the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The NDC will now have 136 MPs in the house, while the NPP will have 135. Before this, the NPP had 138 whereas the NDC had 137.

Also, in 2020, the then-Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, who set the precedent declared the Fomena seat vacant during the 7th Parliament.