Effutu MP Alexander Afenyo-Markin has taken issue with Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin’s recent decision to approve a motion submitted by Haruna Iddrisu, which called for four MPs to vacate their seats.
He described the ruling as unconstitutional and argued that it exceeded the Speaker’s legal authority.
During an interview on Citi FM’s Citi Breakfast Show with Bernard Avle on Friday, October 18, Afenyo-Markin explained that Speaker Bagbin lacked the power to enforce such a ruling.
Citing the parliamentary rulebook, he stated that when an issue is raised under Order 93, the Speaker’s role is to allow MPs to comment and then refer the matter to a committee for further deliberation.
According to him, this process was bypassed, as Bagbin made a direct ruling without following proper procedure.
Afenyo-Markin pointed out that such a ruling should have been brought to the floor through a formal motion, not a statement. He questioned why Bagbin dismissed Haruna Iddrisu’s notice of motion, suggesting that the Speaker’s decision was unorthodox and without precedent.
The ruling in question affected four MPs: Cynthia Mamle Morrison (NPP, Agona West), Kwadjo Asante (NPP, Suhum), Peter Kwakye-Ackah (NDC, Amenfi Central), and Andrew Amoako Asiamah, an independent MP from Fomena who recently rejoined the NPP ahead of the 2024 elections.
Afenyo-Markin further criticized the speed with which the ruling was made, arguing that it has caused unnecessary confusion in Parliament and will disrupt parliamentary business until the issue is addressed. He stressed that a more deliberate approach, involving committee review, should have been taken.
“The speaker has no such mandate to make a ruling on a statement under Order 93. In our rules book, when a statement is made, members are allowed to make comments and if Mr Speaker after the comments, wants to make consequential orders, he refers the thing to a committee and Order 93(6) is very clear and we drew his attention to this and so he had no such power to make a ruling on a statement and it has never happened and it is not part of our rules.
“If an applicant wants a matter to be determined, it comes by way of a motion. Now, one will wonder why Mr. Speaker decided to set aside Haruna Iddrisu’s notice of motion or the matter to be determined?”
“When someone serves a notice, your duty is to admit it and a committee will go through the motion and he has created a whole confusion and I don’t know to what end and don’t know what has become of the motion.
“The speaker was just in a rush to create confusion. I told him he could not do that and the Hansard is my witness and he wanted to have a banter with me but I vowed not to go that way with him.”
