The Members of Parliament on the Majority side staged a walkout in Parliament during processes to approve the 2024 budget on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. After the debate on the budget was concluded, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, put the question for the policy document to be approved or rejected through a voice vote.
The Minority MPs challenged the ruling by the Speaker that the 2024 budget had been approved by a majority voice vote and called for a head count. This decision did not go down well with the Majority MPs who walked out of the house.
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta presented the 2024 budget policy document in Parliament on November 15, 2023. The MPs subsequently took turns to debate the document. Both the Minority Leader, Dr. Ato Forson and Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu made their concluding remarks today.
“You were all there you heard the speaker loud and clear, why should a speaker beat such a hasty retreat from what he has said. In this case, he said the Is have it. Then you have the speaker making a sudden U-turn that he didn’t add that the Is have it. He just expressed an opinion. And that’s most unfortunate. So, we think that the proper thing should be done.
We agreed for the headcount, what was he waiting for? For about 30 minutes he was not doing anything. What kind of attitude is this? That is why we left the chamber. Five MPs of minority are not here so all that he’s doing is to play for time to enable them to find a way into the chamber. That is it, that is all that it is.” Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said.
However, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta on his part says the 2024 budget has been passed following the declaration of the voice vote by the Speaker.
“At the end of the day the speaker put it to vote twice, and he declared that the ‘Is’ have it. That means the budget in my view has been passed. Later there was a challenge, which has not been resolved. So far as I know and believe, we have the 2024 budget passed. Until such time they want to resolve whatever they want to resolve.”
