Political Scientist and Director of the Centre for European Studies at the University of Ghana, Dr. Asah Asante has urged Ghanaians to recognize the Supreme Court as a human institution with limitations and therefore should not be overburdened with work.
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court chaired by the Chief Justice has granted a stay of execution of the ruling of the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin to declare the seats of four Members of Parliament (MPs) vacant over the switch of allegiance following an ex parte application by the majority leader Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin.
This follows Alban Bagbin officially declaring four parliamentary seats vacant. The affected constituencies are Amenfi Central, Fomena, Agona West, and Suhum.
A formal petition was submitted to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin by Haruna Iddrisu, a prominent Member of Parliament from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and former Minority Leader.
The petition triggered extensive debates and arguments within Parliament, with both the Majority and Minority sides presenting their cases. According to the constitutional provisions cited in the motion, MPs who abandon their party affiliations to run independently are required to relinquish their parliamentary positions.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has instructed his legal team to file processes to challenge the recent ruling by the Supreme Court, according to Dr. Dominic Ayine, MP for Bolgatanga East.
Speaking on the matter, Ayine confirmed that Bagbin’s lawyers are preparing to vacate the court’s decision, arguing that the order may be “void” and without legal basis.
However, in an interview on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, Dr Asante expressed that the Supreme Court is a human institution and as such we should not overburden them. He also suggested that there should be a mechanism that seeks to lessen the Supreme Court’s burden.
“We (Ghanaians) should also not lose sight of the fact that the court is a human institution, and we cannot kill them before their natural time that they will die. We overload them with work. We are inundated with cases that the Supreme Court, you’ll recall that recently the Chief Justice did say that it’s all going through some of the work that the judges are doing. One of the judges was handling a thousand cases. We as a society have gone to sleep. We didn’t place a premium on that. But for me, if one person is handling a thousand cases, it amounts to like we are killing the person slowly.
“So we should be able to craft something that will lessen the burden of the Supreme Court so that it will not handle all manner of cases, but a few that it can handle, and it can handle with dispatch. If we’re able to do that, so that matters of this nature when they come, can quickly rise to the occasion. People criticize them that they are not doing this or that, but we have also failed to look at the workload that confronts them”, he stated.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Salimatu Nuhu
