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According to the Suame MP, the First Deputy Speaker, was sick and “shaking like a leaf”, so he needed to excuse himself and hand over the proceedings to the Second Deputy Speaker.
“Is it the case that a Speaker can’t even excuse himself to visit the loo? Is it the case? The man was indisposed. He was shivering. And he went to the clinic, the record is there. So we had to persuade him to come and sit. He was in the chamber and he was shaking like a leaf,” the Majority Leader told JoyNews’ Kwesi Parker-Wilson.
He went further to explain: “We had to go and prevail on him to come and preside. Of course, if he’s presiding, given his own long tenure in Parliament, his own understanding of the rules and procedures in Parliament, we thought that he’d be able to navigate crisis periods much more with respect than the second deputy speaker but it was getting too much for him.
“So, he said he wanted to excuse himself to take his medication and then perhaps to come back if he felt okay, or perhaps maybe to sit somewhere.”
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Meanwhile, despite the excuse by the Majority Leader, the First Deputy Speaker insists that it is ignorant for people to say that he does not have a voting right while presiding.
Chaos broke out in the legislature over voting to determine whether the E-levy should be carried under a certificate of urgency, leading to trading of blows by the lawmakers on both the NDC and NPP sides of the house.
The National Democratic Congress caucus prevented the Second Deputy Speaker from assuming the seat after the Bekwai Member of Parliament who was presiding in the absence of the substantive Speaker Alban Bagbin rose to cast his vote.