BAGBIN ERRED BY DECLARING SEATS VACANT- -Effah-Darteh

By Robert Tachie Menson, GNA
Senase, (B/R), Nov. 5, GNA- Captain (Rtd) Nkrabea Effah-Darteh, a veteran legal practitioner and a former Member of Parliament (MP) says the Speaker of Parliament Albert Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, “erred” when he declared the three parliamentary seats of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the House vacant.
“It was constitutionally wrong for the Speaker to declare the seats vacant,” he stated, explaining that the “1992 Constitution makes it clear that only political parties have that sole prerogative to declare an MP seat vacant after the MP withdraws his or her membership from the party”.
Mr Bagbin officially declared the three NPP seats vacant however; the Supreme Court had since overturned the ruling.
The affected NPP legislators were Mr Andrew Amoako Asiamah, MP for Fomena in the Ashanti Region, Kojo Asante, MP for Suhum in the Eastern Region and Cynthia Morrison, MP for Agona West constituency.
However, Capt (Rtd) Effah-Darteh said, “those political party members who have decided to contest as Independent Candidate in the Election 2024 can continue their roles as MPs until January 7, 2025”, he stated, when speaking at the at the launch of the Election 2024 campaign of Mr Nelson Kwaku Kyeremeh, the Berekum East MP held at Senase in the Berekum Municipality of the Bono Region.
“Ghana is a democratic country, and we must all conform to the Supreme Court ruling on the matter,” Capt (Rtd) Effah-Darteh stated.
GNA