Bolgatanga East Member of Parliament Dr.
Dominic Ayine has said that the ruling of the Supreme Court that stays the execution of the verdict of the Speaker in declaring four seats vacant appears to him as the final decision of the apex court.For instance, he said, the pronouncement by the justices that the ruling of the speaker denied the constituents of those four constituencies a representation in parliament is an indication that they have passed a final verdict on the matter.Speaking on the Hot Issues with Kemnini Amanor on TV3 Sunday, October 20, the Former Deputy Attorney-General said "They sound to me like the final orders, for instance, if you say the ruling of the speaker will deprive them of representation, you are simply saying that what Mr Speaker has done undercut the concept of the practice of representation contemplated under the constitution, that is why I said earlier that the deprivation of representation is contemplated under Article 97 and it s not a constitutional anomaly."For instance, if I write to resign today, 3 months to an election the people of Bolgatanga East will be deprived of representation but it is something that is contemplated under Article 97 of the constitution."I think that they [Supreme Court] are wrong, if you use the concept of representation as the basis to say that not even for one day should somebody not be represented in Parliament even when they have conducted themselves in a way that violates the constitution of the republic of Ghana, then that is wrong."Dr Dominic Ayine further said that ordinarily, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) should be occupying the Majority side following the ruling of the speaker declaring four seats vacant.However, per the Supreme Court order, they have to continue occupying the Minority side.Speaking on the Hot Issue on TV3 with Kemnini Amanor on Sunday, October 20, the former Deputy Attorney-General said "Ordinarily, we should be sitting at the Majority side because from the speakers' ruling, we have 136 members and the NPP has 135 members so they are in the Minority but of course, the orders from the Supreme Court will have to be implemented.
I don't know how long it is going to take for Mr speaker to implement it, if he is implementing the orders from Day 1, then it means that we revert to the position we were in, which means that we will not move to the Majority side.
But if he is not implementing it on Tuesday then we will be on the Majority side until such a time that he announces he has started implementation. "I believe Mr Speaker is going to instruct his lawyers to as a matter of urgency file a process on Monday to try to set aside the orders of the Supreme Court.