Parliament adjourns e-levy voting to 9:00am Tuesday

Parliament has adjourned to 9:00am on Tuesday, December 21 a voting decision on the Electronic Transfer Levy Bill.

Voting on the Bill was suspended after the Majority and Minority members broke into fisticuffs on the floor.

It was not a sight to behold for viewers as blows landed on the faces of Ghana’s lawmakers – mostly referred to as Honourables – while shirts were torn. Others were shoved and jostled in the chaos.

The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, who mounted the dais to take over from First Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei-Owusu as the latter announced assumption of his right to vote in what many believed provoked the Minority members, adjourned proceedings to 9:00am Tuesday.

The Majority members had earlier accused Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin of deliberately shirking his official duties on Monday as they claimed no knowledge of his whereabouts in contravention of parliamentary procedure.

“The NDC’s determination to frustrate and obstruct government business has today been supported by the Speaker of Parliament who is the law sovereign of this House, who is the president of the House and considering the critical numbers, this is the time we expect Mr Speaker to live up to his own bona fide to the people of Ghana,” Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin told journalists.