A Senior Lecturer in Constitutional Law at the University of Ghana School of Law, Dr. Justice Srem-Sai, has expressed his reservations about the increasing tendency to seek legal resolutions for political disputes in Parliament.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Dr. Srem-Sai stressed that conflicts in Parliament are inherently political and should be addressed through dialogue, negotiation, and diplomacy, rather than through court interventions.

His comments come amid heightened tensions in Parliament following Speaker Alban Bagbin’s decision to declare four parliamentary seats vacant, sparking a fierce dispute between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) caucuses.

On October 18, the Supreme Court issued a stay of execution on Speaker Bagbin's ruling, which declared four parliamentary seats vacant and directed that the affected MPs are duly recognised as MPs able to carry out all their duties.

Parliament was, in essence, instructed to recognise and allow the four MPs to fully represent their constituencies and carry out their official duties.

Despite the court's ruling, the NDC caucus refused to relinquish its claim to the majority.

When Parliament resumed on Tuesday, October 23, both NDC and NPP MPs sat on the majority side of the chamber, reflecting the continued standoff. The situation escalated further when NPP MPs eventually walked out of the chamber, leaving their NDC counterparts to occupy the majority seats.

During the proceedings, Speaker Bagbin acknowledged receipt of the Supreme Court’s stay of execution but adjourned Parliament indefinitely, leaving the future of the House uncertain.

Reflecting on these developments, Dr. Srem-Sai, expressed concern over the increasing involvement of the courts in resolving parliamentary disputes.

“When there is conflict in Parliament, it is a political conflict, and politics must always be resolved by political means. When I say political means, I mean deliberations, negotiations, discussions, and diplomacy.

“I always have a problem when some matters are happening on the floor of the House and some individuals either in the House or outside the House rush to court. What you are trying to do is legalise a political process," he said on Wednesday.

According to Dr. Srem-Sai, the frequent recourse to legal avenues risks complicating political conflicts rather than resolving them.

He argued that many parliamentary issues are often misunderstood as legal matters when they are, in fact, political.

“Sometimes, we misunderstand the issues. We think they are legal when they are not,” he said.