Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has said Speaker Alban Bagbin must bow his head in shame for presiding over an unconstitutionality as far as the rejection of the 2022 budget by parliament on Friday evening is concerned. 

The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs told journalists after the rejection of the budget: “That whole procedure was unconstitutional”.

“As far as we are concerned, it’s null and void and has no binding effect on anybody”, the Suame MP said.

He added: “We have cause to believe that, at least, 2 of the NDC MPs were not in the chamber and yet, out of mischief, the Speaker said that they were 137”.

“In any event, even if you go with 137, it is still less than one-half of the 275 members of the chamber, so, when he puts the question, the Speaker should have known that the number would not support the decision of the house”.

“So, that purported decision is a nullity and does not have any effect on anybody”, he said.

“So, to that extent, the motion that has been moved by the Finance Minister has not been lost”, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu insisted, stressing: “It still stands”.

“By necessary implication, that exercise that was engaged in is a complete nullity, and I believe that whoever presided over this should bow down his head in shame”, he added.

Meanwhile, the Speaker has left Accra for Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for medical review.

Mr Bagbin left on Saturday, 27 November 2021, with his entourage.

On Friday, parliament, presided over by the longest-serving legislator, rejected the 2022 budget after the Majority caucus walked out of the chamber in protest to the presence of the National Democratic Congress’ General Secretary Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia in the public gallery of the house during the final debate on the budget.

A statement from parliament announcing the travel schedule of the Speaker dated November 26, 2021, and addressed to the head of the Ghana Mission in UAE, said the Speaker, together with his entourage, would arrive on Saturday.