The Minority in Parliament claims that its decision to walk out during the debate on the passage of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) was made to stymie attempts to achieve a quorum in the House.
The caucus leader stated that his group clearly planned to thwart the Majority’s push to pass the Bill into law.
Haruna Iddrisu, speaking at a press conference shortly after the House passed the E-levy Bill, said the passage was illegal and unconstitutional because the Members present fell short of the required 138 quorum under Article 104 (1) of the 1992 constitution, as recently confirmed by the Supreme Court.
He also alleged that Majority MP for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo was not in the House.
“We simply walked out to disable the majority to have a voting quorum. They were simply less than 137. I am using 137 because conspicuously, everyone in the world knows that Hon. Adwoa Safo was not present. Additionally, we know that there was an ambulance within the precincts of parliament and the person purported to have been in the ambulance was not present in the chamber for the purpose of voting, therefore every decision they took with 136 flies as a sin against the ruling of the Supreme Court.”
The Electronic Transfer Levy was passed by Parliament on Tuesday in the absence of the Minority MPs, who had walked out before the Bill was considered at the second reading stage.
The Minority had complained that the unexpected consideration of the levy had caught them off guard.
The E-levy was not mentioned in this week’s business statement in Parliament. Minority MPs later walked out of Parliament before the Bill’s second reading after debating it.
