Former minority leader and Member for Parliament for Tamale South Constituency, Haruna Iddrisu, has called for the enforcement of Article 97 of Ghana’s Constitution, saying the NDC minority should become the majority in Parliament next week.
Speaking at a rally, Haruna Iddrisu explained that according to Article 97, members of parliament who leave their party or decide to run as independent candidates should lose their seats.
“On Tuesday, the Parliament of Ghana will reconvene, and when it reconvene, I am very certain that Parliament and Ghana will go through a major constitutional test. The constitutional test is that the NDC minority must become the majority for Wednesday next week. I assume, and this must happen, if there is constitutional and legal propriety in Ghana because any nuance interpretation of Article 97 provides that if a member of Parliament on a political party ticket like NPP defects and files to be independent, that NPP ceases to be a member of Parliament.”
He promised that the NDC would push Parliament to disqualify four NPP MPs who recently announced plans to run as independent candidates.
Haruna Iddrisu deemed this action necessary to protect the legal and constitutional rules that guide Parliament.
“If an independent member of Parliament,by virtue of the provision of Article 97, subclause G, joins a politicalparty, that independent loses constitutional recognition and does not belong to Parliament, so if an NDC candidate, MP, defects to become an independent, he ceases to be a memberof Parliament.”
“Therefore, we will invoke the Speaker’s proper interpretation of Article 97by our standing order.”
Story by: Alexander Kuuku Osei-Baidoo | univers.ug.edu.gh
