Richard Amoako Baah, a political scientist, has said that the events of Tuesday 30 November 2021 in Parliament where the Majority, in the absence of the Minority, overturned the rejection of the 2022 Budget and then approved it is null and void.
On Tuesday a sitting of Parliament, made up mainly of the members of the Majority, quashed the rejection of the government’s economic policy for 2022 and voted to approve the Budget Statement.
The First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, who presided over the sitting, says the decision the House took to reject the 2022 Budget on 26 November is not valid, because it did not satisfy the provision in the Standing Orders which stipulates that one-half of members must be present to take such decisions.
Awaiting Bagbin
However, speaking to Beatrice Adu on The Big Bulletin on Tuesday, Amoako Baah said that there will be a proper resolution of the matter when the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, returns to the country.
He argued that the Majority in Parliament erred in deciding to approve the 2022 Budget without the Minority.
“If you want to go ahead and do that [going against the constitution on parliamentary procedures], go ahead and do it; you’re putting yourself in peril, because that thing [overturning the rejection and approval of the 2022 Budget] is null and void.
“And so, the only option left is to wait for the Speaker to come back and then [the First Deputy Speaker will] step down as Deputy Speaker and vote.
“That’s what I think, because I’m not looking at parliamentary standing orders, I’m looking at the constitution,” Amoako Baah said.
Nicholas Brown
Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online
99.5 in Accra, 90.7 in Ho, 98.5 in Kumasi, 99.7 in Tamale, 89.5 in Tarkwa, and 106.9 in Walewale
Follow us on Twitter: @asaaseradio995
#AsaaseRadio
#TheVoiceofOurLand
