Secret voting for deputy speakers now allowed – Bagbin

Standing Orders regarding the secret voting by deputy speakers in parliament have been reviewed, Speaker, Alban Bagbin has said.

According to him, Deputy Speakers can now vote secretly by telling their clerks their choices on the matter, citinewsroom reports.

Speaking at a public forum in Takoradi, he said,

“Now we have come up with new standing orders. So a lot of work has been done within this period. Revising the standing orders which started in 2002 has not been successful until now, but within three years, we have succeeded in doing so.

“The first and second deputy speakers when you are presiding in my absence, you can vote by indicating your preference to the clerks in silence, and he will add to the number."

“It’s not in your place to say those who are supporting say ‘I’ and you are also shouting ‘I’, how then do you determine if you also shout,” Bagbin was quoted by citinewsroom as having said.

This comes after a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court, in April 2022, to dismiss an application for a review of its earlier judgement on the voting rights of a deputy speaker or member presiding in parliament.

The Supreme Court on March 9, 2022, ruled that a Deputy Speaker of Parliament can vote while presiding over sittings in the House, contrary to the Standing Orders of Parliament.

According to the highest court of the land, the proper interpretation of Articles 103 and 104 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana shows that Deputy Speakers do not lose their right to take part in decision-making while sitting in the stead of the Speaker.

However, Justice Abdulai, a private legal practitioner and plaintiff in the original case filed for a review of the judgement which he said: “constitutes exceptional circumstances that resulted in the miscarriage of Justice.”

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WA