{"id":8929,"date":"2024-11-12T09:03:55","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T09:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=8929"},"modified":"2024-11-12T09:03:57","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T09:03:57","slug":"vacant-seats-controversy-supreme-court-to-deliver-ruling-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=8929","title":{"rendered":"Vacant seats controversy: Supreme Court to deliver ruling today."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Supreme Court is set to deliver a landm<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ark ruling today, Tuesday, November 12, on the controversial decision by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, to declare four parliamentary seats vacant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This follows a legal battle sparked by Bagbin\u2019s unilateral declaration, which has raised questions about the Speaker&#8217;s authority and the constitutional process for determining parliamentary vacancies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Counsel for the Speaker, Thaddeus Sory, failed to appear in court on Monday, November 11, and did not submit the required statement of case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This absence comes after the Attorney-General raised concerns about the legality of Sory\u2019s continued representation of the Speaker, arguing that the Public Procurement Authority had not approved the engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The case was initiated by Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary caucus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Afenyo-Markin is challenging Bagbin\u2019s decision, which was made without judicial oversight or the initiation of by-elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Majority Leader contends that the Speaker exceeded his constitutional powers in declaring the seats vacant without following due process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the centre of the dispute is Speaker Bagbin\u2019s interpretation of the 1992 Constitution regarding parliamentary vacancies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-a565e6866d69d99647572664bbbdc6ec ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:400px; height:400px; max-height:400px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7QIGpt4iDEc?feature=oembed&color=red&rel=0&controls=1&start=&end=&fs=0&iv_load_policy=0&autoplay=0&mute=0&modestbranding=0&cc_load_policy=1&playsinline=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; encrypted-media;accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;gyroscope;picture-in-picture clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen referrerpolicy=\"origin\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On October 17, 2024, Bagbin declared the seats vacant, claiming that the Members of Parliament (MPs) in question had violated constitutional requirements, thus justifying their removal from office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Afenyo-Markin argues that this decision bypassed the judicial process and encroached upon the judiciary\u2019s role in interpreting the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Afenyo-Markin insists that the power to declare seats vacant lies with the judiciary, not the Speaker, and that Bagbin\u2019s actions effectively disenfranchised the affected constituents by denying them proper representation in Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He argues that such decisions should be made through judicial review rather than unilateral executive actions by the Speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In response to Afenyo-Markin\u2019s suit, the Supreme Court issued an injunction preventing any further action on the vacant seats until a final judgment could be delivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaker Bagbin subsequently filed a motion to reverse the injunction, arguing that it infringed upon his duties as Speaker. However, the Supreme Court dismissed his motion, upholding its previous injunction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With today\u2019s judgment looming, the court&#8217;s decision is expected to have significant implications for parliamentary procedures and the balance of power between the Speaker and the judiciary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court is set to deliver a landm ark ruling today, Tuesday, November 12, on the controversial decision by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, to declare four parliamentary seats vacant. This follows a legal battle sparked by Bagbin\u2019s unilateral declaration, which has raised questions about the Speaker&#8217;s authority and the constitutional process for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,18],"tags":[936,1812,2879],"class_list":["post-8929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","category-politics","tag-parliament","tag-supreme-court-2","tag-vacant-seat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8931,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8929\/revisions\/8931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}