Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has revealed that parliamentary candidates whose results were invalidated by the Supreme Court on Friday, December 27, 2024, will be ineligible to be sworn in as Members of Parliament on January 6, 2025.
He argued that the decision of the apex court has affirmed that the declaration of the so-called MPs-elect was unlawful.
The Speaker also revealed that he had held discussions with the clerk about the matter, and as the gatekeeper of the House, it was his duty to ensure that the right thing was done.
“The decision of the Supreme Court just followed the position I took before they even delivered their decision. To become a member of parliament, you have to be elected by the voter, and you have to be declared by the electoral commission.
“But you have to be sworn in by the speaker. Until you are sworn in by the speaker, you remain MP-elect. So I was very clear in my mind that some of those re-collation and re-declarations were completely null and void.
“They were unknown to the law, and so they were not properly so-called MPs-elect and not qualified to be sworn in by me. My clerk is here. We had those discussions when I told them. They were all surprised. I said yes. I’m the gatekeeper. The right thing must be done for us to be able to reset Ghana.”
Background
The Supreme Court nullified the recollated results for the Okaikwei Central, Ablekuma North, Tema Central, and Techiman South constituencies.
The court in its decision stated that the recollection and redeclaration were done illegally.
This was after the National Democratic Congress submitted a case before the court praying that a decision by the High Court to direct the EC to recollate the results be quashed.
The NDC opposed the High Court’s directive on the grounds that the recollation process was unlawful and lacked merit. The party contended that the court had exceeded its jurisdiction, undermining the transparency and credibility of the electoral process.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
