The Member of Parliament for Mpraeso, Davis Opoku Ansah, has rejected recent calls by former Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, urging New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs who are contesting the upcoming elections as independent candidates to vacate their parliamentary seats.
Haruna Iddrisu, addressing a campaign event in the Tamale North constituency suggested that the Minority caucus might invoke Article 97 (1)(g) of the 1992 Constitution to compel the Speaker of Parliament to declare those seats vacant, as the constitution stipulates that MPs who resign from their party or run as independent candidates may forfeit their positions.
In response, Davis Opoku Ansah argued that the proposed action would be unconstitutional. He emphasized that the MPs in question are still part of the NPP and have not resigned from the party, which is a necessary condition for invoking Article 97 (1)(g).
“Haruna Iddrisu and the NDC side should not trigger any such clause. They should not trigger any such clause in Parliament because already, the 137-137 Parliament that we have is causing a lot of problems.
“I mean, we have less than three months to an election and we are praying that we see this Parliament through for Ghanaians to decide and I strongly urge that it is not proper, it is unconstitutional to want to say that an MP who was duly been elected by the people, not by the party, he was elected by the people and decides in a future election to contest on a different ticket will seize to be a Member of Parliament.”
He also disagreed with the 2020 decision to declare the Fomena seat vacant.
The current Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament had announced his intention to run as an independent candidate after accusing the NPP of undermining his candidacy, which led to his loss in the party’s parliamentary primaries.
Davis Opoku Ansah stated that the NPP was wrong to have made such a decision.
“It was wrong for Professor [Aaron Mike] Oquaye to have ruled that way. It is not about individuals, it is about what the law says. It was wrong then, it is wrong now, and it should be wrong in the near future.
“Today, the people of [Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lipke and Lolobi] SALL complain a lot that they do not have representation in Parliament and because somebody has decided to contest in a future election, you say you are taking that person out.”
Three of the said four MPs have crossed carpets to contest the next parliamentary elections as independent candidates.
One of them, the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament and MP for Fomena, Andrew Asiamah Amoako, according to Haruna Iddrisu has crossed carpet as an independent MP for Fomena following his filing to contest the 2024 parliamentary election on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The others are Cynthia Mamle Morrison of Agona East and Kwadwo Asante of Suhum, all of whom are currently in Parliament on the ticket of the NPP but have filed to contest as independent parliamentary candidates in the 2024 elections.
The fourth person is a National Democratic Congress (NDC) member who according to Mr Iddrisu has also crossed carpet to contest as an independent candidate.