Minority NPP boycotts vetting of three Supreme Court nominees over rushed timetable

The Minority in Parliament has boycotted the vetting of three Supreme Court nominees after protesting what it considers an unnecessarily rushed timetable for the exercise.

The Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, said the objection was not directed at the nominees or the principle of vetting, but rather the manner and timeframe within which the process was being conducted.

According to him, there is currently no vacancy on the Supreme Court bench that requires the appointments to be treated with such urgency.

He argued that the three nominees were being considered to augment the existing number of Supreme Court Justices rather than to immediately fill vacant positions.

Speaking before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Thursday, August 27, Mr Afenyo-Markin challenged the Majority to explain what harm would be caused to the state, the Judiciary or litigants if the nominations were subjected to the same scrutiny and timeline traditionally applied to appointments to the apex court.

“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,” he said.

The Minority maintained that its position was not intended to frustrate the work of the Appointments Committee or embarrass the nominees, but to ensure that the process complied with parliamentary procedures and constitutional requirements.

However, the Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Bernard Ahiafor, rejected the objection, describing the grounds advanced by the Minority as “flimsy”, “hollow” and “baseless”.

Mr Ahiafor argued that the committee could not vary a decision already taken by the full House and said members who disagreed with the decision should 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,” he 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 added.

“It is not done in any democracy, and I will not be the first to introduce it in Ghana’s democracy.”

The committee chairman also rejected the suggestion that the three judicial nominees should be subjected to a different process from other nominees appearing before the committee.

Following Mr Ahiafor’s decision to dismiss the Minority’s objection, Mr Afenyo-Markin and other Minority members walked out of the sitting, effectively boycotting 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 the Ghana Bar Association.