President cannot injunct Parliament — Haruna Iddrisu
Former Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has insisted that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cannot, by any shred of authority, seek to injunct Parliament from exercising its lawful duties.
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He said as an executive arm of government, the legislature was responsible for lawmaking, and that the President was not clothed with the power to stop Parliament from performing its legislative functions.
Nothing before court
Speaking in reaction to a letter from the Presidency to the Clerk-to-Parliament yesterday to stop sending the Anti-gay Bill to the President for assent, Mr Iddrisu said: “As far as I am concerned, even with my understanding of the law, there is nothing before the court.”
“Because a bill remains a bill until it is assented to by the President and it is not law; so, there is nothing before the court that somebody will seek to use that to injunct us to perform our lawful duties,” he said.
In a letter dated March 18, 2024, and signed by the Executive Secretary to the President, Nana Asante Bediatuo, the Presidency requested the Clerk-to-Parliament to refrain from sending the Anti-gay Bill to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his assent.
The decision was in light of two pending applications for an order of interlocutory injunction that had been filed before the Supreme Court.
Monumental threat
But the National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Tamale South said he was unable to sleep following the letter from the Presidency to stop Parliament from performing its duties.
In his view, the move by the Presidency was a “monumental threat to Ghana’s democracy and Parliament as an institution.”
He said per Article 93, Parliament was clothed with the legislative authority and mandate.
He said the letter from the Presidency further reflected President Akufo-Addo’s quest of predominance over the other organs of state.
That, he said, was unacceptable and that the move must be fought by all persons who loved democracy and cherished the principles and values of the Constitution.
“The framers of the Constitution endowed the country with separation of powers — the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary,” he said.
He questioned the political powers the President’s secretary had to write to the Clerk-to-Parliament and not the President himself writing directly to the Speaker of Parliament as it was required by the new Standing Order so that officially “this can be read as communication from the President”.
Ignore letter
“Ideally, this paper means nothing and it should be ignored by the Clerk because communications to Parliament must be communications signed by the President, addressed to the Speaker of Parliament as required by our Standing Orders,” he said.
