Declaration of 4 seats vacant: Kpebu questions Supreme Court’s decision on Bagbin’s ruling

Martin Luther Kpebu, a private legal practitioner, has questioned the need for the urgency with which the Supreme Court ruled on the ex parte motion filed by the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Members of Parliament.

He says the apex court rushed in its ruling on the declaration of the four seats vacant in Parliament, indicating the decision has the tendency to cause havoc in the country.

The Court on Friday, October 19, 2024, ruled to stay the ruling of the Speaker where he declared four seats vacant in Parliament.

But Mr. Kpebu says the Supreme Court should have taken some time to arrive at a decision that would sit well with its reasoning for staying the Speaker’s ruling.

Speaking on the KeyPoints on TV3 Saturday, October 19, 2024, he said the impression shared by a couple of his colleague lawyers after the Supreme Court’s ruling was that Ghana was headed for a dangerous direction.

According to him, the ruling was creating a lot of havoc in the country asking what necessitated the rush in quashing the Speaker’s verdict on the declaration of the four seats vacant.

“Other lawyers sent me private messages and they said ‘with this Supreme Court decision where are we headed for?’. Some are like, ‘this country is going to go up in flames’. This decision is causing a lot of havoc. Under the rules of court, you can go ex parte ie going on the blind side of the other party.

“I didn’t see the urgent case being made that they will cause this and that [but] just general vague statement. That is it, when you rush judgement, that’s what you get, that you’ll not be able to articulate well,” he stated.

The Supreme Court on Friday, October 18, 2024, issued a stay of execution on the ruling by Speaker Alban Bagbin declaring some four parliamentary seats vacant.

The Court also directed Parliament to recognise and allow the four MPs to fully represent their constituencies and carry out their official duties.

The applicants had initially requested for a 10-day but the Supreme Court says they should carry on with their roles as MPs until the final ruling on the matter has been delivered.

The application to stay the Speaker’s decision was filed by New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament, who sought the Court’s intervention to halt the enforcement of the ruling that would have affected three of their colleagues and one from the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The application was filed ex parte, meaning that neither Speaker Bagbin nor Parliament was joined to the case.

The ex parte application made the Court consider the plaintiffs’ request without seeking any response from the Speaker or other parliamentary authorities at this stage.

The case was heard by a panel of Supreme Court justices presided over by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo.

Other members of the panel included Justice Mariama Owusu, Justice Kwame Adibu Asiedu, Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu, and Justice Yaw Darko Asare, who together delivered the ruling to stay the Speaker’s decision.

Representing the NPP MPs were lawyers Paa Kwesi Abaidoo and former Attorney General Joe Ghartey.

They successfully argued for the stay, which temporarily halts the Speaker’s ruling pending further legal proceedings. The Court’s decision effectively keeps the four MPs’ seats intact in the meantime.

The ruling affected three NPP MPs made up of Cynthia Morrison (Agona West), Kwadjo Asante (Suhum), and independent candidate who was doing business with the Majority, Andrew Asiamah (Fomena), and one NDC MP, Peter Yaw Kwakye Ackah (Amenfi Central), who either chose to run as independent candidates or switched party affiliations for the 2024 elections.

As a result, the NDC, previously in the Minority, now becomes a majority with 136 seats with the NPP remaining with 135 seats now assuming minority.

However, the Supreme Court’s decision on the ex parte motion reverses the ruling of the Speaker until the final ruling on the matter is delivered.