The leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) caucus in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has stated that the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is fuelling mayhem following the recent developments in Parliament.
He made this remark while addressing the press on Thursday, 7th November 2024, after Speaker Alban Bagbin adjourned Parliament once again due to the absence of NPP members.
“Clearly, the NDC is on a war path. They want confusion in this country, they want lawlessness, and all of this is being supervised by Mr. Speaker,” he said.
Mr. Afenyo-Markin has therefore appealed to the media to “call the NDC out, to call Mr. Speaker out.”
The parliamentary crisis begun when, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin in October this year officially declared four parliamentary seats vacant with barely two months to the general election in December.
This ruling means that Ghana’s hung parliament which gave the governing New Patriotic Party a slight upper hand as the Majority side with the support of an Independent Member of Parliament, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, will now tilt towards the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The MP for Efutu constituency in the Central Region, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, however, challenged the Speaker’s declaration in the Supreme Court, seeking to have the Court overturn the vacancy ruling. In response, Speaker Alban Bagbin also requested the Court to reverse its decision, saying that his declaration was constitutional.
After a day-long proceeding at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, October 30, 2024, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo of the Supreme Court rejected the Speaker’s application to overturn its earlier ruling.
On Thursday, November 7, 2024, the Speaker adjourned parliament for the second time. The new development has since sparked further controversy among the NPP members of the House.
