Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin Adjourns Sitting Due to Lack of Quorum

Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin was compelled to adjourn sitting after only 24 Members of Parliament (MPs) showed up for proceedings.

The Minority had earlier threatened to disrupt parliamentary business if the Majority Caucus failed to attend.

During proceedings, Majority Chief Whip Frank Annoh Dompreh wanted to lay before the House the Ewoyaa Lithium and Bauxite agreement, but Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, raised the issue of quorum.

Mr. Mohammed argued that by parliamentary procedures, the House did not constitute a quorum to execute business.

“Mr. Speaker, I’m standing on order 64 to raise a quorum for transactions for business this morning. They bring business to this house, and they can’t consistently rely on our numbers to have government business executed.

“It demonstrates a lack of seriousness. I don’t think we need to give them this opportunity. They are in our constituencies campaigning, yet they expect us to execute their business for them. It’s completely unacceptable. We could have also done that, we could have left this house, but we have decided to act responsibly,” he said on July 15.

Following this concern, Mr. Speaker called for a headcount and subsequently adjourned the house.