1st Deputy Speaker acted unlawfully – Tain MP

A lawmaker for Tain Constituency in the Bono Region, Adams Sulemana has chided the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu, for acting unlawfully to approve the 2022 budget.

According to him, the Deputy Speaker failed to reason beyond the law that you cannot be a “referee and a player “at the same time.

He said, for the First Deputy Speaker, to descend onto the plenary to be counted and sit on the Chair as the Speaker, was unlawful per the 1992 Constitution and the Standing Orders of Parliament.

The minority MP raised concerns over the posture of the first deputy speaker of parliament, stressing that, the first deputy speaker is chewing more than he can swallow.

The Minority on Wednesday, 1^st December 2021, filed a motion to have the budget approval ruling overturned on grounds that the decision of the presiding speaker to include himself as members present on November 30, 2021, was wrong thereby making the whole exercise unconstitutional.

But the majority side disagreed and said the deputy speaker does lose his vote the moment he occupies the seat but not his position as an MP.

They called on the speaker not to change his mind on his earlier ruling.

After the debate was concluded, the speaker decided to rule. In his ruling, he stated that the deputy speaker is not the same as the speaker. Therefore article 104 and order 109 of standing orders do not apply to him.