Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
Opposition Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has described the approval of the 2022 budget by a one-sided majority house as a war waged against the Speaker of the house and the Ghanaian people.
Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin on Friday, November 27, 2021, supervised an election that rejected the 2022 Budget and Economic Policy after the majority side had staged a boycott of proceedings just before the question for the approval voting was put before the house.
However, the house having reconvened on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, to conduct business, voted to overturn the budget rejection of Friday, and subsequently performed another vote to approve the budget albeit in the absence of the minority who stayed out of the chamber.
Presiding over proceedings of the house on Tuesday, the Second Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu sitting in for the speaker after ordering for a count of the number of MPs in the house, albeit only majority MPs, announced that there were 138 members present including himself.
He further stated that the number satisfies the constitutional requirement for the house to pass a vote and thus called for a new vote to overturn the decision on Friday as moved by the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.
With the absence of the minority side, the all-majority MPs present voted to overturn the rejection of the 2022 budget statement.
The house further conducted a vote to pass the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy with the speaker announcing the budget presented to the house by the minister for finance on September 17, 2021, as having been adopted by the house.
Reacting to the development in a Facebook post sighted by GhanaWeb, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa who is a member of the minority described the actions of the majority side as a wage of war against the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin and the entire Ghanaian population.
“Declaration of war against the Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament and the Ghanaian people,” he stated and went further to hint of a follow up from the minority saying “this is just the beginning.”
Meanwhile the minority side in a press conference has described the approval of the budget as contravening the dictates of the law and procedures of parliament.
At the press conference addressed by the Majority Leader, Haruna Iddrissu, he stated that the second deputy speaker who was presiding over proceedings cannot be counted as a voting MP and thus the number in the chamber did not satisfy the constitutional requirement to reach a decision.