E-levy: My view is that Minority should have stayed in Parliament – Ricketts-Hagan

Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, Kweku George Ricketts-Hagan has said his personal view is that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament should have stayed in Parliament to vote against the e-levy when it was being considered on Tuesday, March 29.

However, he said, the leadership of his side thought otherwise due to information on a move by the Majority, they had but were not privy to the rest hence, the decision to walk out.

“My personal view is that we should have stayed and voted but leadership got the information we didn’t have and that information showed that the best option was to walk out and use the Supreme Court ruling,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, April 2 with host Dzifa Bampoh.

He added, “We deployed all strategies and at the eleventh hour, the strategy was to walk out before the Speaker put out the question.”

For his part, former MP for Suhum George Opare Ansah said The Majority Leader asked the Speaker to put the question while the NDC MPs were still on their way out of the Chamber was not because he feared that there would be no quorum for the approval of the policy.

“It is because when the question is put, the rule is whether you heard the question or not you can vote. The rule is that you need not to hear the questions,” he said.

The minority walkout out just before the approval of the policy and subsequently sued the Attorney General over the development.

The Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu described the approval as illegal and unconstitutional because, in their view, the Majority did not have the right numbers to pass it.

“This is a charade,” he said at a press conference in Parliament, adding that “there is no E-levy.”

“The majority of less than 137 conducting businesses only proceeded on illegal and unconstitutional business. Parliament did not have the numbers to take any decision that should binding Parliament and Ghanaians,” he added.