Mr Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business in Parliament, has filed an injunction at the Supreme Court.
This is seeking to place an injunction on the House from compelling sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), who had filed to contest as independent candidates in the December 7 general election to vacate their seats.
The Majority Leader made this revelation on Tuesday during the Leaders’ Media Briefing at Parliament House in Accra.
The writ, he said was in response to a memo to the Speaker by Mr Haruna Iddrisu, a former Minority Leader and National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Tamale South, requesting that three sitting MPs who were contesting the 2024 general election as independent parliamentary candidates and a current independent Member of the House, who was now contesting on a political party’s ticket be made to vacate their seats in Parliament.
The three sitting MPs who are contesting this year’s general election as independent candidates include Madam Cynthia Mamle Morrison, NPP MP for Agona West, Mr Kwadjo Asante, NPP MP for Suhum and Mr Peter Yaw Kwakye-Ackah, NDC MP for Amenfi Central.
While Mr Andrew Amoako Asiamah, Independent MP for Fomena and Second Deputy Speaker, is contesting on the NPP.
Mr Afenyo-Markin said members of his Caucus who had filed to go independent in the 2024 general election had not written officially to him that they were vacating their seats and that as far as he was concerned, his Caucus of the House remained intact.
Article 97(1)(g) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana states that “a Member of Parliament shall vacate his/her seat if the person leaves the party that elected him/her to join another party or seek to remain in Parliament as an independent member”.
On the ruling of Speaker Professor Aaron Mike Ocquaye during the 2020 general election to declare the Fomena Parliamentary Seat vacant following Mr Andrew Amoako Asiamah, who was then the NPP sitting MP for Fomena, to go independent, Mr Afenyo-Markin noted that the law needs to be tested and that the Court was the best place for the interpretation of the Constitution of the country.
