Parliament is due to consider E-levy Bill
Vote on the bill last year resulted in violent confrontation in Parliament
Mohammed Mubarak-Muntaka, Member of Parliament for Asawase has cautioned that the Minority in Parliament will not allow any deputy Speaker presiding over the House at any point to participate in voting.
His caution comes at a time government has hinted that the now controversial Electronic Transactions (E-levy) bill will be resubmitted to the house for passage.
Even though the Majority Caucus has 137 MPs plus an independent MP as compared to 137 for the Minority, the absence on a medical leave of Speaker Alban Bagbin means a deputy Speaker will have to preside and with that, the numbers on both sides will be even.
Muntaka while reiterating the Minority’s dogged opposition to the E-levy, explained that his side will resist any attempts for a sit-in Speaker to vote on the issue when it comes up.
“As long as people want to alter the rules, you can never guarantee that there will be no confusion in the chamber. It is not possible,” he said in an interview on Joy News.
Asked about how they will react to a Speaker’s move to vote, he said: “Unfortunately, I can bet you we will resist that. As for that, we will resist. I really wish our resistance will not lead to the exchange of blows. But we will do everything to prevent that from happening.
“And I pray that we don’t get there, where it will become necessary for us to say that we are going to resist by every means possible. It is not my prayer (we get to that).
“But one thing that I can tell you, for a sitting Speaker to be sitting there and saying that I am coming down to vote, that will be too difficult for our side to take. I won’t lie. I am not a pretender,” he stressed.
He also confirmed that Speaker Alban Bagbin will be leaving Accra for Dubai this weekend for a scheduled medical checkup. It is Bagbin’s third trip in the last few months.
In December 2021, Parliament descended into chaos during a vote on the E-levy. The Minority MPs moved to prevent First Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei-Owusu from handing his seat to the Second Deputy Speaker in order to cast his vote on the levy.
The Minority insists the Speaker at all times has no vote even though the Majority insist that deputy Speakers are by law MP representing constituents and can vote given certain conditions.
Mohammed-Muntaka Mubarak, Asawase MP and Minority Chief Whip