Deputy Speaker’s voting right: Supreme Court dismisses Justice Abdulai’s review application

The Supreme Court review panel presided over by Justice Jones Victor Mawulorm Dotse has dismissed an application filed by Justice Abdulai seeking a review of the ruling on the Deputy Speaker’s rights to vote case.

It can be recalled that a seven-member Supreme Court panel, on March 9, 2022, unanimously declared that the two Deputy Speakers of Parliament remain Members of Parliament, when they are presiding in the absence of the main Speaker and that they can vote and be counted as present for purposes of decision-making in the House.

This was after Justice Abdulai had filed an application before the Supreme Court seeking an interpretation of the law on the Deputy Speakers’ rights to vote.

After the ruling from the seven-member Supreme Court panel, Justice Abdulai returned to the apex court with a review application earlier this month.

Sitting on the case today, a nine-member Supreme Court review panel presided over by Justice Jones Dotse has dismissed the application.

The SC review panel after hearing the submissions of the State and the applicant who represented himself ruled that the threshold required for a review application was not met. It then described the application as unmeritorious.

“Considering the threshold that this review application is supposed to meet, we are of the considered view that this application falls short. The application is thus dismissed for being unmeritorious” the presiding judge, Justice Jones Dotse said in his ruling on the matter.