Kweku Baako tackles Alban Bagbin over Parliamentary quorum

The Speaker, after he returned from his medical trip abroad, told the MPs on Thursday, December 16, that, a quorum to vote is formed based on the members present in Parliament not on the floor or in the Chamber.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Newsfile programme, Baako took exception to the Speaker’s statement indicating that, there were some precedents cited by Alban Bagbin concerning the forming of a quorum to make a decision were confusing.

He explained, “The speaker cited some precedents in making his case and I was a bit confused some of the precedents were quorum specific, once he did that there were areas that were for me confusing. I have difficulty with what the speaker did and I find something very significant and in all the precedents he cited, he did not mention the December 22, 2015 incident which is the most important of all these matters.’’

Baako referenced former Speaker Doe-Adjaho on an issue that had occurred in parliament on December 22 2015, where the House was voting on the one billion sovereign bonds.

He said, “there is a quorum to do business and that is one-third of the House and there is a quorum to take a decision so we need to draw a distinction between the quorum to do business and the quorum to make a decision. The quorum to take a decision is regulated by article 104(1). The fundamental question is that the time that the vote was taken did we have at least half of the honorable members present? It is a constitutional issue which had been captured in standing order 109(1) of our standing orders…”

Abdul Malik Kweku Baako further noted that, Doe-Adjaho’s position meant that a quorum for a decision to be taken is formed based on the number present in the Chamber as of the time to vote is about to be taken.