According to Professor Kofi Abotsi, dean of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) Law School, anyone can denounce a member of parliament who decides to run as an independent or crosses the carpet.
He maintains that reporting such an abnormality is not only the responsibility of the political party.
He stated that the MP is first an agent of the constitution and a secondary agent of the political party, adding that the parties are merely a means of getting into Parliament, in an interview on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Thursday, October 17.
He explained that “in elementary principles, the Constitution says whoever is in violation of the Constitution is void. Meaning if anybody acts in a manner considered unconstitutional regardless of the activation of a process by a party, citizen or anyone, the action is intrinsically void.
“So therefore, if a person crosses carpet and by reason of that, the person is supposed to lose his membership of Parliament. If that person continues to sit in Parliament, whether or not a party reports, the person would have been sitting unconstitutionally which means the person would have been sitting in Parliament unqualified. That therefore undermines the argument that the party should be the one ordinarily to report because the person would have fundamentally violated the constitutional requirement.”
“That is why in my opinion, everybody, technically has the right to report this. In fact, MPs can do that, the parties can, non-members of Parliament, ordinary Ghanaians can petition the Speaker of Parliament to ensure that such an anomaly is rectified if ever a thing like this happens,” he explained further.
His stance on the law runs counter to that of Prof. Mike Oquaye, the former Speaker of Parliament.
The appeal filed by former Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu to have four parliamentary seats declared vacant since their incumbents chose to run as independent candidates in the next general elections raised issues, according to Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye.
Prof. Oquaye claims that without a formal complaint from the impacted political parties and a fair hearing for the MPs implicated, such a move would be unlawful.
But according to Prof Abotsi, the structure or framing of the provision itself in the Constitution – Article 97 doesn’t even mention reporting so to speak.
“The Constitution says that the person shall primarily take the step himself. The person becomes disqualified if he crosses carpet.
“So ordinarily, the reporting part is a secondary thing. If the person doesn’t take steps to report himself, then, we have a secondary step.”
Prof Abotsi said although he understands the former Speaker’s argument, “we should also not forget the fact that political party may have an incentive not to report a thing like this.”
The petition submitted by the minority NDC is anticipated to be decided by the current Speaker of Parliament.
The MPs in question are Andrew Asiamah, Kwadjo Asante of Suhum, Cynthia Morrison of Agona West, and Peter Kwakyi Ackah of Amenfi Central.
Source: myjoyonline.com