Minority heads to Supreme Court to challenge the approval
Supreme Court ruling clarifies quorum for business and quorum for decision making
Former Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, has opined that there is a ‘very slim’ chance of the Supreme Court overturning the passage of the E-levy bill.
The one-time ranking member on Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee contends that the Minority should have left one of its MPs in the Chamber to raise the issue of quorum formation for decision making.
Speaking on Joy News, he explained that the quorum formation article [Article 104] was not self-invoking thus would have taken an MP to draw the attention of the Speaker.
“Assuming that all others apart from Adjoa Safo and the Chieftaincy minister were present in the Chamber, what they [Minority] needed to do was to just leave one person in the chamber to raise an issue of quorum. That way, you will be invoking the jurisdiction of the Speaker to rule on whether there is quorum for decision making under Article 104," he emphasized.
Mr. Fuseini added that whether or not quorum formation could be self-invoking was another matter worthy of determination.
Asked whether or not the minority will be successful at reversing the passage of the E-levy when it goes to the Supreme Court, he said: “it’s slim. Reading Abdulai’s case…that case stood on whether or not a quorum had been formed for the purposes of a decision and whether or not in determining the quorum under 104, the Speaker can count himself in as a Member of Parliament.
"That was what the Supreme Court was invited to answer and I think they answered that. Whether a quorum is self-invoking is another matter,” Inusah Fuseini said.
The issue of E-levy and quorum formation has in recent weeks become very topical in Parliament.
The Minority MPs have been very particular about quorum formation in Parliament post the Supreme Court ruling of March 9.
They maintain that they are enforcing the ruling to the latter even though previously government business went on smoothly without issues of quorum being raised.
The Minority on two occasions raised the issue of a quorum to ‘block’ the approval of €20m loan agreement between Ghana and Germany.
They had earlier on “blocked” a €38m loan to construct five district hospitals stating that Parliament on the day did not have the requisite number of MPs to proceed with government business.
It has also been in stiff opposition to the E-levy arguing that it will impose hardship on Ghanaians.
While the majority caucus passed the bill on March 29, the Minority staged a walkout.
They later said in a press conference addressed by leader, Haruna Iddrissu that the walkout was to prevent the Majority group from having quorum to pass the E-levy.
They have also hinted at challenging the passage of the E-levy bill at the Supreme Court.
