The Majority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has criticized the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, for his decision not to reconvene the House.
According to Afenyo-Markin, the Speaker is treating Parliament as his personal property, deciding arbitrarily when to reopen it for government business.
“Look at the shutdown they are doing in Parliament. Today, the Speaker has taken Parliament as his personal property. As and when it pleases him, he opens Parliament. Even when there is an issue that he could sit with us on, he says no,” Afenyo-Markin stated in an interview with JoyNews.
The Majority Leader had submitted a memo requesting the Speaker to recall Parliament to deliberate on urgent government business before the end of November.
However, in a response dated Tuesday, 26th November, Alban Bagbin declined the request, indicating that the House would only reconvene after the December 7 general elections to address government matters.
Afenyo-Markin expressed concern about the implications of the Speaker’s decision, arguing that it obstructs critical legislative processes and undermines the smooth functioning of government operations.
He described the Speaker’s refusal as unacceptable, accusing Bagbin of being unwilling to reconvene the House.
“Look at the recent case, they themselves created this impasse. We [NPP], as law-abiding citizens, took the matter to court. The court ruled in our favour.
“They contested the case and lost. I was expecting Mr Speaker to immediately open Parliament as a Democrat, to say that government business must go on. I waited upon him, he did not. When I finally wrote to him to open Parliament for us to do government business, look at his response. He’s not ready,” he said.
He also criticized the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) caucus and its flagbearer, John Mahama, for urging the Speaker not to recall Parliament, describing their actions as effectively holding the state hostage.
“Look at the response of the NDC. They wrote a counter-petition saying that Mr Speaker should not open Parliament. The flagbearer of the NDC also said the same thing. So what are they doing is to hold government hostage,” he asserted.
Commenting on how the Speaker’s decision would affect government business, Afenyo-Markin accused Bagbin of acting with mischief.
“Are we even sure that he would open Parliament? That’s the question. Are we even sure? But the answer lies in we [NPP] winning massively. And once we win massively and we come, he would have no choice.
“I do not want to rely on his words. You remember we recall Parliament, the government did all that they had to do, we came in and he adjourned Parliament sine die. So I don’t want to talk about whether he would come and reopen Parliament or not. I leave it to his own judgment,” he added.
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