Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has clarified that determining seating arrangements for Members of Parliament (MPs) is beyond his mandate, amid the ongoing dispute over which party holds the majority in the House.
This issue arose after Speaker Bagbin recently declared four parliamentary seats vacant, prompting the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Caucus to assert that they now hold the majority.
The declaration has fueled debate among MPs, with both parties interpreting the implications of the vacant seats differently as they seek official recognition as either the majority or minority.
During a media briefing on Wednesday, November 6, Bagbin noted that while Ghana’s Parliament is influenced by the Westminster system, which traditionally assigns certain seating arrangements to the majority party, this is not a binding rule.
He explained that seating typically reflects parliamentary conventions and the balance of power, rather than any direct decision by the Speaker.
Bagbin urged MPs to prioritize parliamentary order and functionality, emphasizing that such matters should be resolved through leadership dialogue rather than seating disputes.
“It is not within a Speaker’s duties to decide where an MP should sit. Ghana’s Constitution doesn’t make that determination,” Bagbin stated, adding that in many parliaments, strict notions of majority and minority are evolving.
“Numbers determine who holds the majority or minority, but not necessarily where MPs sit,” he said.
“That is because, after independence in 1957, we adopted the Westminster system, which is practiced in the United Kingdom. But we changed that even to the extent that the arrangement on the floor of the House is in a horseshoe. So, it is not always the case that the people to the left side are all members of a minority. That is not the case now, and there is good reason,” he stated.
