Lawyer, Bobby Banson, has called on Parliamentarians to set aside their political differences and build consensus especially when issues of national development are at hand.

His comment comes in the wake of the Minority side of Parliament scuttling the approval of a €20 million loan agreement between the government and Germany due to the lack of quorum when it comes to decision making.

The facility, which is to finance Green Credit Line under the Reform and Investment Partnership between the two countries, is expected to help cut down carbon emissions.

However, immediately after the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Kwaku Kwarteng, presented his Committee’s report on the facility on Thursday, NDC MPs Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor and Bernard Ahiafor raised issues.

Their concern was about quorum under articles 102 and 104 based on the judgment by the Supreme Court, which gave Deputy Speakers voting rights while presiding.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile Saturday, Bobby Banson noted that although their actions are in line with the constitution, it is stifling initiatives that could potentially benefit the average Ghanaian.

He said, “I watched one of the videos where when it came to discussing an amendment to the criminal law or something like that they didn’t complain, and as soon as it came to the loan agreement they said ‘hold on we do not have a quorum’.

“And the Deputy Majority Leader was very livid but at the end of the day, you see, it goes to the point that even though they’re there in their partisan colours, they should think of the national development agenda.”

He explained that even though the Minority is opposed to the Supreme Court ruling concerning the voting rights of a presiding Deputy Speaker, they should not take it out on issues that derail the national development agenda.

“Parliament’s foremost responsibility is to pass laws to aid in the development of the country. So even if the Supreme Court has said it is ABCD some of them are not happy. This loan is not going to develop constituencies that voted for NPP.

“It’s going to every single part of the country and so I believe that the various Chief Whips of the parties or the leadership should be able to reach a consensus on some of these things and then let’s move the country forward,” he said.

Background

The Supreme Court presided over by Justice Jones Dotse ruled that a Deputy Speaker can be counted during the formation of a quorum for parliamentary decision-making and participate in voting while presiding over the parliamentary business.

The landmark judgement was given after private legal practitioner, Justice Abdulai, filed a case against the Attorney- General to contest the First Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei-Owusu’s decision to count himself during a vote to approve the 2022 budget.

Justice Abdulai had also asked the Supreme Court to interpret Articles 102 and 104 of the 1992 Constitution and declare the action of Mr Osei-Owusu as unconstitutional.

Subsequently, the Court struck down Order 109(3) of the Standing Orders of Parliament and described it as unconstitutional.

However, former President John Mahama believes the 7-0 ruling affects the independence of the legislative arm of government and may affect future deliberations in the House.