The Minority Caucus in Parliament has described the passage of the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) Bill, as illegal and unconstitutional.
This is because according to them, the Majority did not constitute a voting quorum as required by Article 104 of the Constitution. They said the Majority had less than 138 members to approve the bill which is described as “a charade”.
“We are convinced that this Parliament, guided by the Supreme Court’s decision on Justice Abdulai and the Attorney-General, the Majority, following the walkout of the Minority, did not constitute a voting quorum as required by Article 104 of the Constitution,” it said.
Addressing a press conference in parliament on Tuesday March 29, 2022, after the bill was passed, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said the Majority of less than137 conducting business only proceeded on illegal and unconstitutional business. “Parliament did not have the numbers to take any decision that should be binding on Parliament and Ghanaians. Immediately after this briefing, we intend to file to question the legitimacy of the decision of less than one half of Parliament taking a decision to approve E-Levy at the second reading following our walkout and at the second reading of the bill”, he said.
Meanwhile, explaining why they walked out of parliament, Haruna Iddrisu said: “We simply walked out to disenable them from having the voting quorum. They were simply less than 137 because everybody in the world and Ghana knows the honourable Adwoa Safo was not present and therefore they had 136.
“Additionally, we know that there was an ambulance within the precincts of Parliament but the person who purported to have been in the ambulance was not present in the Chamber for the purpose of exercising a vote,” he said.
It is however said according to reports that they will go to court for this.