On Wednesday, July 19, 2023 Parliament could not commence business in the house due to a lack of quorum, as it had 91 members present, however, minutes of the proceedings recorded 201 members present.
The Second Deputy Speaker, Andrews Asiamah Amoako, who was in charge, was compelled to adjourn after he confirmed that there were 35 members in the chamber and a total of 91 MPs had signed the attendance.
“91” is still not even one-third. Honorable Members, I will go ahead and adjourn the House,” he said, subsequently bringing proceedings to a close.
However, during the correction of the minutes for Wednesday, which was done on Thursday, July 20, 2023 it was established that the House that lacked quorum to do business for lack of numbers the previous day, had 201 members marked present, far above the minimum threshold for Article 102.
Article 102 of the 1992 constitution states “A quorum of Parliament, apart from the person presiding, shall be one-third of all the members of Parliament.”
EXPLAIN TO GHANAIANS
The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu, who was presiding yesterday, was astonished, as well as other members of the house, looking at the numbers marked present as opposed to the reason for adjourning the House.
He blamed the confusion on the lack of clear-cut definition of when a member could be counted as present.
“I think that we should be clear in our definition of when a member can be said to be present. Of course, when it comes to taking a decision, you may defer every matter and come into the Chamber, but when it is question time and I have a committee meeting, should I sit here and listen to Constituency-specific questions or go to committee sittings? These are matters that I think we should reconsider when we want to raise the issue of quorum.”
He agreed with the MP for Adansi/Asokwa, Kobina Tahir Hammond, who had argued that if care was not taken, parliamentary business, apart from those in the Chamber, would suffer.
“For the time being, I take note that it is on record that yesterday, 201 members were present. How that happened when Parliament truncated business because we did not have a quorum to transact business is a matter for which we may have to answer to the public,” the Deputy Speaker opined.
ORDERS
Order 7 states that, in these Orders, unless the context otherwise requires, “Committee” means a Committee of the Whole, a Standing, Select, Special, or Adhoc Committee; “Precincts of the House or Parliament” means and includes the Chamber, the Lobbies, the Galleries and grounds of Parliament House and such other places as the Speaker may from time to time specify. “Sitting” includes a period during which Parliament is sitting continuously without adjournment and a period during which it is in Committee.
COMMITTEE
The Member for Okaikoi Central, Patrick Yaw Boamah, who raised the issue, argued that several committees were sitting on that Wednesday, including the Public Accounts Committee, of which the South Dayi Legislator, Rocksn-Nelson Defeamapkor, who raised the issue of quorum, is a member.
He read from the order paper for that Tuesday, July 18, 2023 which showed members of the various Committee sittings for the following day.
He mentioned the Committees on Finance, Gender and Children, Youth, Sports and Culture, Subsidiary Legislation, Local Government, Employment and Communications.
He argued that each Committee is made up of about 25 members, but did not state whether all the Committees that sat had full attendance.
However, he stated that per the definition the Speaker had put on the member being present, meaning within the precinct of parliament, the quorum raised sent the wrong signal about the House to the public.
The Minority maintained their stance on the quorum, drawing strength from Justice Abdulai Versus the Attorney General case, repeated yesterday by the South Dayi MP, Rockson-Nelson Defeamakpor.
The MP disagreed with the Okaikoi Central MP but insisted that he was ensuring that the House respect the constitution and the interpretation by the Supreme Court.
The Minority Chief Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, indicated that the House could not be ruling differently each day, adding that there “must be precedence.”
He said that the Minority was only being “lawful,” adding that if the majority “wants to litigate, check your back.”
The minority has said that it would adopt several strategies to ‘fight’ what it describes as “persecution” of the Assin North MP, James Gyakye Quayson, but what is not known is whether raising the issue of quorum is one of their strategies.
