The Minority on Parliament’s Appointments Committee has boycotted the vetting of three nominees to the Supreme Court, citing concerns over what it described as an unnecessarily hurried process.
The Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, raised the objection when the Committee commenced proceedings on Thursday, arguing that Parliament had not been given sufficient time to scrutinise the nominations.
According to him, the nominations were intended to increase the number of Justices on the Supreme Court rather than fill existing vacancies, making the urgency surrounding the vetting difficult to justify.
Mr Afenyo-Markin stressed that the Minority’s position was not a rejection of the nominees or an attempt to frustrate the work of the Appointments Committee.
He instead called for the process to follow what he described as the appropriate parliamentary procedure, including allowing the required period for public scrutiny of the nominees.
“These nominations came to the House on Monday. Let us reason together and let us be seen 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 Leader questioned the need to accelerate the process and challenged the Majority to demonstrate what negative consequences the state, judiciary or litigants would suffer if the nominees were subjected to the same level of scrutiny traditionally associated with Supreme Court appointments.
He maintained that the boycott was intended to protect parliamentary and constitutional procedures rather than obstruct the nominees’ consideration.
However, Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Bernard Ahiafor, rejected the Minority’s concerns, describing the objection as “flimsy,” “hollow” and “baseless.”
The Committee subsequently proceeded with the vetting despite the absence of the Minority members.
The three nominees undergoing consideration are Justice Sophia Bernasko-Essah and Justice Edward Amoako Asante, both Justices of the Court of Appeal, and private legal practitioner Anthony Forson Jr., a former President of the Ghana Bar Association.
Justice Amoako Asante also previously served as President of the ECOWAS Court of Justice.
