A Member Of The Majority Was Present While Voting On The Budget – Bagbin

Speaker of Parliament, RT. Hon. Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has revealed that a member of the majority group in Parliament was present in the chamber when he posed the question for the economic policy to be accepted or otherwise.

Instead of 137 members of the Minority caucus, the Speaker reveals that there were 138, that is, a member of the ruling NPP MPs joined.

He explained in a Facebook post that the Budget was lawfully rejected.

“Please let it be known that there were more than 137 MPs on the Floor when I put the question for the approval or rejection of the Economic Policy and Financial Statement of the government for the 2022 financial year often referred to as the Budget for 2022.

He said this member sat on the last row of seats reserved for the Majority.

“After the rejection of the request by the Minister of Finance to be given more time to consult the expanded leadership of Parliament, one member of the Majority Caucus came to sit on the last row of the seats on the Majority side by the side-door facing the Speaker’s lobby. That took the number of attendants at that moment to 138. So when the question was put by me to the Plenary, the Hon. Gentleman remained silent”, he narrated.

The Speaker who is currently out of the country for medical review in Dubai has asked Ghanaians to disregard “the survival antics by the ever loquacious Leader of the Majority Group in today’s hung Parliament.”

In Ghana today, the majority Group is in a consultative meeting with the minority to rectify issues that led to the rejection of the budget in Parliament on Friday, November 26, 2021, the first to be rejected in the fourth republic.

The majority however says the rejection of the budget is illegitimate since they weren’t present.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini