The Ghana Government coalition boycotts Parliament after denouncing a maneuver that takes away its majority

MADRID 18 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Ghana Government coalition, the New Patriotic Front (NFP), has announced that it will boycott the sessions of the country’s Parliament after denouncing that the chamber has acted unilaterally by declaring three seats vacant that according to the formation belong to it, in a maneuver which has left them in a minority seven weeks before the general elections in the African country.

Until the chamber’s decision, the Government coalition maintained 137 seats, the same as the great opposition represented in the National Democratic Congress. However, an additional independent vote guaranteed him a majority.

The decision taken by the President of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, removes the independent vote from the coalition plus two other seats after receiving information from the Ghanaian opposition that two NFP deputies intended to become independent without joining another party. something that contravenes national law.

Thus, the president of Parliament would have acted, according to the leader of the NFP, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, unilaterally “when interpreting the Constitution and it is very clear that what he has just done is acting by order” of the opposition, declares to the Ghanaian newspaper ‘The Chronicle’.

“We no longer have anyone else to litigate before. The process is already in the hands of the courts and we will follow it to the end. And if the court rules on the matter, we will abide by its orders. But we have started this issue because we see that it raises very open issues to interpretation,” he indicated.

Meanwhile, Afyenko-Markin has confirmed that her party will boycott Parliament sessions until the country’s Supreme Court rules on this issue.

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo will leave office in the upcoming elections after his second and final term. His choice for succession is the country’s vice president, Mahamu Bawumia, but all polls right now show the leader of the NFP, John Dramani Mahama, as the favorite, who was already close to achieving the Presidency in the last 2020 elections.