The Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho was Thursday compelled to ignore Standing Order 48 (1) because of what he describes as time constraint.
Parliamentary Standing Order 48 (1) states: “The presence of at least one third of all the Members Parliament beside the person presiding shall be necessary to constitute a quorum of the house.
“(2) If at the time of sitting a member takes notice or objection that there are present in the house, besides the person presiding less than one third of the number of all the Members of Parliament, and after an interval of ten minutes a quorum is not present, the person presiding shall adjourn House without question put until the next sitting day.”
The Member of Parliament for Nkoransah North Derrick Oduro raised concerns for the house to consider the number of members present, noting that they were less than what is required to form a quorum.
But the Speaker, Doe Adjaho rather took into consideration the limited time left for the December general elections, and alerted members outside the chamber to come inside.
Though less than 20 out of the 275 MPs were present, the Speaker wasted no time to call for government business to commence.
Although the Deputy Minority Leader, Dominic Nitiwul also observed the earlier concerns raised by his colleague and tried to still draw the attention of the Speaker, he was unsuccessful.
The Speaker insisted that there is the need to conduct business of the house as quickly as possible because time is not on their side. Members must go to their respective constituencies and campaign, he reminded them.
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