The Minority in Parliament has boycotted the vetting of three Supreme Court nominees, objecting to what it describes as an unnecessarily compressed timetable for the process.
The Minority argues that there is currently no vacancy on the Supreme Court bench to warrant the urgency attached to the appointments, insisting that the nominees are being considered to add to the existing complement of Justices rather than fill vacant positions.
Speaking before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Thursday, August 27, Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin said the objection was not against the principle of vetting or the nominees as individuals, but against the manner and timeframe within which the process was being conducted.
He challenged the Majority to demonstrate what harm would be caused to the state, the Judiciary or litigants if the nominees were subjected to the same level of scrutiny and consideration ordinarily applied to Supreme Court nominations.
“These nominations came to the House on Monday. Let us reason together and let us be seen as being consistent with our political views. If you want to follow the precedent, please suspend today’s sitting, properly put out the advert as you requested when you were in opposition, and let us wait for the 14 days,” Mr Afenyo-Markin said.
The Minority stressed that its objection was not intended to obstruct the work of the Appointments Committee or embarrass the nominees, but to ensure that the process complied with parliamentary procedures and constitutional requirements.
However, Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Bernard Ahiafor, dismissed the objection, describing the grounds raised by the Minority as “flimsy”, “hollow” and “baseless”.
He said any member dissatisfied with a decision of the House must use the procedures provided under Parliament’s Standing Orders to seek a reversal.
“If you are aggrieved by the decision of the House, the method available for you to reverse that decision is contained in our own Standing Orders,” Mr Ahiafor said.
“I will not preside over this committee and purport to vary the orders or directions or decision taken at the plenary by the entire House,” he said.
“It is not done in any democracy, and I will not be the first to introduce it in Ghana’s democracy.”
Mr Ahiafor also rejected suggestions that the committee should treat the Supreme Court nominees differently from other nominees appearing before it.
Following the chairman’s decision, the Minority, led by Mr Afenyo-Markin, walked out of the vetting.
The three nominees are Justice Sophia Bernasko-Essah, a Justice of the Court of Appeal; Justice Edward Amoako Asante, a Court of Appeal Justice and former President of the ECOWAS Court of Justice; and private legal practitioner Anthony Forson Jr., a former President of Ghana Bar Association.