The Majority Caucus in Parliament has staged a walkout ahead of the approval of the 2024 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government for the year ending December 31, 2024.
Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, put the motion on a voice vote and declared the “Ayes” by the Majority as having carried the motion but the Minority Caucus challenged the motion and argued that there was no clear distinction between the “Ayes” and the “Nays” during the voice vote.
The Deputy Minority Leader, Emmanuel Kofi Armah-Buah then invoked Order 113 (2) calling for a headcount or division to determine the outcome of the vote.
The Speaker subsequently adhered to the Minority’s request and called for a head count.
The Speaker further indicated that each MP’s name would be called out for them to stand up and be counted.
This directive by the Speaker was objected to by the Majority Caucus stating that the Speaker had already declared the “Ayes” in favour of the motion and should stand by his ruling.
This resulted in a heated back and forth but the Majority gave in for the headcount.
However, the majority accused the speaker of delaying the process to allow some minority MPs who were not on the floor to come in hence the walkout.
“We agreed on the headcount, what was he waiting for? For good about 30 minutes he was just there doing nothing. What kind of attitude is this? That is why we left the chamber. Five MPs of minority are not here so all that he’s doing is to play for time to enable them to find a way into the chamber. That is it, that is all that it is.” Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said.
