Parliament has approved the nomination of Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie as the new Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana, following the adoption of the Appointments Committee’s report.
Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Bernard Ahiafor, moved the motion for the House to adopt the committee’s 70th report on the president’s nomination of Justice Baffoe-Bonnie.
Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, November 13, Bernard Ahiafor presented a full report of the vetting of the Chief Justice Nominee on November 10 to the House.
“Right Honourable Speaker, by way of recommendation, the Committee recommends to the House, by majority decision, the approval of the nomination of Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie for appointment as Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana,” he said.
This was followed by a long debate from many Members of Parliament and Ministers, after which the Speaker of Parliament Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, put out a voice vote.
“At the conclusion of the debate, I put the question. Those in favour of the adoption of the committees report, say ‘aye’, those against say ‘no’.”
After repeating the question and hearing from the house, the Speaker announced, “Honourable members, I think the Aye’s have it.”
However, Deputy Minority Whip, Habib Iddrisu challenged the voice vote and called for a head count which the Speaker of Parliament agreed to do.
“The Ayes have 163. The no’s, 69,” the Speaker announced after the count.
The Deputy Minority Whip again challenged this count and called for division for avoidance of doubt as stated under Order 1526.
However, the Speaker did not agree to his call and went on to announce the approval of Justice Baffoe-Bonnie’s nomination.
“It is my view that a division has been unnecessarily claimed,”
“The motion has accordingly been adopted. This honorable house has accordingly approved the nomination of Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie as Chief Justice of the republic in accordance with article 114 Clause 1 of the 1992 Constitution.”
Speaker Alban Bagbin then congratulated the nominee on his appointment.
