News:
July 15, 2026
The Minority Caucus in Parliament staged a walkout on Tuesday in protest against what they described as the “intimidating” conduct of the First Deputy Speaker, Bernard Ahiafor, during proceedings.
The walkout occurred after the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, was prevented from asking a supplementary question on a government policy regarding fresh voter registration. The Minority Leader subsequently addressed the media, outlining the caucus’s grievances.
Mr. Afenyo-Marko accused the First Deputy Speaker of systematically using parliamentary rules to frustrate Minority members, particularly those on the back benches.
“Friends, the British speaker [First Deputy Speaker] has a way of using the rules to stampede parliamentary oversight,” Mr. Afenyo-Markin stated. “You’ve all observed that he started to attack our back benches. Anytime our back benches had the opportunity to be on the outfits, he would use the rules to frustrate them.”
The immediate trigger for the protest was a question the Minority Leader posed to a minister regarding the cost of a new government registration exercise. Mr. Afenyo-Markin argued the question was a legitimate matter of public interest, particularly as the minister had previously stated the exercise would be at no cost to subscribers.
“Our question is, at what cost? How many people were identified to have used stolen IDs and all of that? Especially when the minister himself said it would be at no cost to the subscribers,” he said. “That’s a harmless question. It’s the interest of the Ghanaian public to know how much it’s costing the nation.”
The Minority Leader maintained that his supplementary question was procedurally sound, citing Order 89.1 of Parliament’s Standing Orders, which allows members to anchor supplementary questions on answers provided by ministers for the purpose of clarification. He claimed the First Deputy Speaker incorrectly ruled the question out of order.
“First, the British speaker was sitting at the presiding officer claiming to know the rules and saying that no, it’s a new question. Meanwhile, that answer was provided by the minister. The rules under 89.1 allows you to anchor your supplementary question on an answer given by the minister,” Mr. Afenyo-Markin explained.
He noted that even members on the Majority side disagreed with the Speaker’s ruling, a factor that contributed to the Minority’s decision to walk out.
“We protested the posture of the first British speaker using the rules to frustrate us and as you observe, even his own side disagreed with him. The majority leader himself realized that what he was doing was wrong. It’s a reason why we walked out,” he said.
Despite the protest, Mr. Afenyo-Markin confirmed that the Minority Caucus would return to the chamber to attend to other legislative business. “However, we’re going back into the chamber to deal with other business. We’re going back to the posture and this very matter and that’s it,” he concluded.
The walkout is the latest in a series of confrontations between the Minority Leader and the First Deputy Speaker, who have clashed multiple times over parliamentary procedure and rulings from the chair.
Ghanamps.com