Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has launched a spirited, even if contradictory, defence for Joseph Osei Owusu’s rise from the Speaker’s chair on Monday.
Joseph Osei Owusu, First Deputy Speaker and MP for Bekwai, instigated a free-for-all fight in Parliament when, as the sit-in Speaker, he rose from the Speaker’s chair to ostensibly cast a vote on the unpopular E-levy.
Chaos erupted in the chamber as Minority MPs moved in to stop Mr Osei Owusu (known popularly as Joe Wise) as Majority MPs tried to fend off the attack from the Minority MPs.
The Minority MPs were preventing Joe Wise from casting a vote on the bill because the Standing Orders stipulates that an MP presiding as Speaker loses their right to vote.
While the Bekwai MP has himself attempted to justify rising from the Speaker’s chair to vote, the Majority Leader has made claims to the contrary.
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Joe Wise told pro-government radio station Asaase Radio the following early Tuesday morning:
“The first thing we must understand is that as long as I remain a Member of Parliament, I can vote on any matter, the only time I lose my vote is when I’m presiding.
“The only time I lose my right to vote is when I am presiding [as Speaker] … if I am not presiding I retain the same rights as any other MP.”
Joe Wise further told the radio station that: “The only advantage the Majority has over the Minority is one vote. Anytime the Speaker is not around and the deputy takes over, then the majority is disadvantaged.”
However, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu gave the following curious explanation for Joe Wise’s rising from the Speaker’s chair when he spoke to journalists in Parliament on Tuesday.
“Is it the case that a speaker can’t even excuse himself to visit the loo? Is it the case?” The man was indisposed…He was shivering,” he said.
The Suame MP added: “He [Joe Wise] went to the clinic; the record is there. So, we had to persuade him to come and sit. He was in the chamber and he was shaking like a leaf. We had to go and prevail on him to come and preside.”
The Majority Leader then stated that if Joe Wise is presiding, given his own long tenure in Parliament, he does so with his own understanding of the rules and procedures in Parliament.
Asked if Mr Osei-Owusu was not excusing himself so he could take part in the voting on the floor, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu blurted out: “what if he did?”
The 1.75% E-levy, to be charged on mobile and some electronic transactions, has been widely criticised as exorbitant, unnecessary and a lazy approach to widening the tax net.
Meanwhile, there will be no voting on e-levy bill or its implementation, at least until next year, as Parliament adjourns sitting till January 18, 2022.