Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, has raised concerns over the rampant involvement of the judiciary in political matter within the legislator.
The law maker comments comes in response to the Supreme Court’s issued a stay of execution on Speaker Alban Bagbin’s ruling that declared four parliamentary seats vacant. He lamented of the swift interference from the judiciary without hearing from the speaker.
Hon. Ayariga said “That is why you should have knowledgeable people as judges at the Supreme Court. We should have judges who know their law,” he said, referencing the 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case Baker v. Carr.
Hon. Ayariga explained that the Ghanaian SC should have taken a page out of the Baker v. Carr case.
“If they were knowledgeable, they would have known that the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Baker and Carr in 1968, said that ‘there are certain matters that are by their nature political within the domain of the legislature and the executive.’”
“…the Supreme Court hurriedly meets and issues a stay of execution to the Speaker without even hearing the other side.”
“Else there would be these kinds of clashes where the legislature would say one thing and the Supreme Court would say another. Where the Executive would say one thing and the Supreme Court would say another” he told Joy news in an interview yesterday.
Hon. Ayariga’s submission comes to in defense of Bagbin’s declaration of four seats vacant after the MPs filed to contest the 2024 elections as independent candidates or cross carpet to another party.