Alban Bagbin was 'forced' to reject 2022 budget - Allotey Jacobs alleges

Social Commentator, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, has jabbed the Minority in Parliament over last Friday's incident where the Majority walked out from the August House allowing the Minority to vote alone on the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of government.

The Minority rejected the budget but their position was declared unconstitutional by the Majority who, on Tuesday, November 30, held another voting thereby approving the budget.

The Minority's vote was counted invalid because, according to the standing orders of Parliament, voting could only take place in the presence of a majority number, with at least half of all the members in the House.

Discussing the 2022 budget and matters arising, Allotey Jacobs, former Central Regional Chairman of the NDC found the incident on Friday very distasteful.

In his view, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin, was forced to accept that the Minority's decision despite being aware that his action together with the Minority is unconstitutional.

"For me, what I saw on last Friday was not in a good taste, because even when you looked at Bagbin's face, you would see he was forced to do it," he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo'.

He concluded that "what happened on Friday was null and void".

Allotey Jacobs, however, called for consensus-building stressing what the nation needs is not the chaos that transpired in Parliament.

"We need consensus building in this country," he emphasized, adding it should "cut across the political divide".

Allotey further stated the Minority's presser following the budget approval was done out of envy.

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