Carpet-crossing MPs must keep their seats – Law Prof

Fullbright Law Professor, John Griffiths has said Ghana’s constitutional provisions, which require that Members of Parliament vacate their seats when they go independent or floor-cross while serving as Legislators, give political parties unmerited control over MPs.

Article 97 (1) (g) of the 1992 Constitution states that an MP shall vacate his seat “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.”

Article 97 (1) (h) also stipulates that a Member of Parliament must vacate his seat “if he was elected a Member of Parliament as an independent candidate and joins a political party.

Clause (2) of that article, however, states that: “Notwithstanding paragraph (g) of clause (1) of this article, a merger of parties at the national level sanctioned by the parties' Constitutions or membership of a coalition government of which his original party forms part, shall not affect the status of any Member of Parliament.”

The first two provisions, in Prof Griffith’s view, “unnecessarily increase the power over Members of parliament, by the political parties.”

Speaking at a public forum organised by the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) on the “role of constitutional reforms in consolidating peace, stability and national cohesion,” the former University of Groningen Professor in The Netherlands said: “I don’t see why a Member of Parliament should be prohibited – if in good conscience, he thinks it’s the only thing he can do – from saying: ‘I can’t any longer, in good conscience, agree with what the rest of the party wants to do.”

“I think if one seriously wants to reduce the grip of political parties on the political process, it might be a good idea to reconsider the desirability of that provision,” he advised at the forum chaired by Prof Akilagkpa Sawyerr, Vice President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Science (GAAS).

Other Speakers at the forum include Emeritus Prof S O Gyandoh Jnr, Senior Partner, Gyandoh Asmah & Co, and Emeritus Prof Kwame A. Ninsin, Scholar-in-Residence, IDEG.