Minority Leader Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has beseeched the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin to reject Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin’s request to recall the House.
He stressed that this is the fourth time in 2024 alone that the NPP parliamentary caucus is requesting an urgent recall of Parliament.
According to him, at each of these urgent meetings, many of the businesses stated as “so-called” urgent Government Businesses were abandoned.
The House was adjourned indefinitely on November 7, when Speaker Bagbin suspended proceedings due to the absence of a prepared agenda from the Business Committee.
Alexander Afenyo-Markin later urged Speaker Bagbin to exercise his constitutional mandate under Standing Orders 57(3) and 58(4) to reconvene Parliament to address the outstanding business of the House.
However, the Minority leader in a memo to the speaker argued that the Afenyo-Markin request is premised on an appeal to exercise discretion to recall Parliament to consider what he termed “high priority” government business.
“Respectfully, Mr. Speaker, we wish to submit that based on the petitioner’s request, you are not obliged to recall Parliament. Further, the petitioner has not demonstrated that there is any emergency nor urgent government business to warrant a recall of Parliament, with barely eleven (11) remaining days to the crucial 2024 General Election.”