If Article 3(9) of the NPP Constitution is unconstitutional, the leadership of the Party, Parliamentary Caucus and Government, ought to have the integrity to say so. Using the Supreme Court to sidestep the leadership duty of being honest with the people, only puts the Court in a bad light with negative implications for the Courts’ own integrity.
We are where we are in Parliament, held to ransom by the NPP in power, only because of their selfish party preservation interests. Certainly not national stability.
Article 3(9) of the NPP Constitution reads as follows.
“FORFEITURE OF MEMBERSHIP
A Member of the Party, who stands as an independent candidate against the officially elected member of the Party, or who joins or declares his or her support for another Political Party, or for an independent candidate, when the Party has sponsored a candidate in a general or by-election, automatically forfeits his or her membership of the Party.”
There is nothing futuristic about the clear provision above. The loss of party membership or parliamentary standing is immediate. It requires no notice or hearing. You “sack yourself” the moment you pick nomination forms and file against the Party Candidate, or you voluntarily declare support for someone filing against the Party Candidate.
Accordingly, Article 3(9) of the NPP Constitution has disqualified Hon. Cynthia Morrison and Hon. Kwadwo Asante from membership of the NPP. Right now, they have no business pretending to represent the NPP in Parliament. Unless the NPP Party Constitution is declared unconstitutional, the forfeiture of their right to represent NPP in Parliament is automatic.
Article 3(9) of the NPP constitution feeds seamlessly into Article 97(1)(g) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, which instructs the Speaker of Parliament in clear unambiguous terms as follows:
“97. (1) A member of Parliament shall vacate his seat in Parliament –
(g) if he leaves the party of which he was a member at the time of his election to Parliament to join another party or seeks to remain in Parliament as an independent member….”
The loss of status does not require formal communication to the Speaker. Filing of nominations as independents is constructive notice to the Speaker. Based on the constructive notice offered by the filing and or Notice of Poll, the Speaker must recognize the new status of Hons. Cynthia Morrison and Kwadwo Asante as well as Peter Yaw Kwakye-Ackah of the NDC, as independent MPs, and readjust their Parliamentary standing accordingly.
Hon. Andrew Asiamah Amoako is affected by Article 97(1)(h) which reads.
“if he was elected a member of Parliament as an independent candidate and joins a political party.”
Having re-joined the NPP by filing as their candidate in Fomena, he has no business sitting in as the Second Deputy Speaker. Parliament must necessarily reconstitute the Speakership.
But for preserving the interests of a “Partycracy”, Parliament ought to be sitting in its freshly reorganized NDC Majority and NPP Minority. The rules are unambiguous and require no further interpretation.
Resolution of the impasse in Parliament requires the Supreme Court to be extremely conscious of Chapter One and Article 125 (1)(2) and (3) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. If the authority embedded therein is upheld by the Court in full, it will cement the respect needed to grow a society of law and order and make the Court the final source of objective refuge for all.
After all, the Court is supposed to be the epitome of Rule of Law, and under no circumstance must its conduct move it into doubt that requires another institution to resolve.
There is none beyond the Court as our refuge, and it must manifestly act as such.
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