Accra, Feb. 18, GNA - Parliament on Wednesday ratified the Stability Agreement between the Republic of Ghana and AngloGold Limited of South Africa, by a voice vote, which was later challenged by the minority side on the basis of Article 261 (1 and 2) of the 1992 Constitution.
After the Minister of Mines, Mrs. Cecilia Banermann, moved for the adoption of the resolution numbered six on the order paper, which calls on members of the House to ratify the said agreement, The Majority Chief Whip, Mr. Abraham Ossei-Aidooh seconded the motion but no one else debated it.
The Speaker, Mr. Peter Ala Adjetey went ahead and posed the question for the adoption of the resolution, and called for a voice vote, which went in favour of the adoption.
After the voice votes had been taken and the agreement ratified, the Minority Leader, Mr. Alban Bagbin challenged the procedure saying that the rules demanded that a head count rather than a voice vote was used in adopting resolutions in the House.
The Speaker asked the Minority Leader to point specifically to which rule demanded that resolutions could only be passed by head counts, but he failed to do so.
Mr. Norbert Awulley, NDC-Builsa South brought the Speaker's attention to Article 261 (1 and 2) of the Constitution, saying that, that provision demanded that any agreement of international nature, like the one between Ghana and AngloGold, needed votes of not less than two-thirds of members of the house for ratification.
Mr. Ala Adjetey pointed out that the Constitution did not specifically state that, "there should be head-count before any resolution could be adopted."
"My ruling from today is that resolutions can be adopted either by head count or by voice votes since the rules do not fundamentally challenge any of the two processes of adopting resolutions," he said.
"Members have been under the erroneous impression that resolutions could only be adopted by head count but I hope this ruling corrects that impression once and for all - I don't wish to be confronted with an issue of this nature again."
By the ratification of the Stability Agreement, Parliament has given its legal backing to the dictates of the agreement to the effect that Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) is now AngloGold Ashanti.
The Agreement among other things also seeks to create an enabling economic, fiscal and stable environment for the protection of investment that AngloGold wished to make in the proposed enlarged company.
Government originally owned 17.2 per cent, which came to 6,373,650 shares of AGC, valued at about 222 million US dollars. The same amount comes to 2.4 per cent shares in the lager AngloGold Ashanti.
But in AngloGold Ashanti, government has additional 2,685,000 shares, which value at 100 million US dollars and brings the total government share to 3.4 per cent, valued at over 300 million US dollars.
