On the 12th day of November, 2024, the Supreme Court of Ghana by a majority decision of 5 -2, interpreted Article 97 (1) (g ) & (h) to the effect that a member of parliament who files nominations to contest elections on the ticket of a different political party other than the one for which he/she was elected as member of parliament, does loose his seat as a member of the current parliament.  This decision has drawn sharp division in views of opinion leaders, lawyers, academics and jurists.  In order to understand the reasoning behind the opinions of the two sides of the bench, you are encouraged to read the full case which can be downloaded in this article.   WHO ARE THE JUSTICES  Majority Y. DARKO ASARE J.S.C PG. SACKEY TORKONOO J.S.C (CJ),  M . OWUSU J.S.C.,  Y. GAEWU J.S.C.   S .K.A. ASIEDU J.S.C. Minority (dissenting) Tanko Amadu J.S.C.  Lovelace -Johnson J.S.C   SUMMARY OF CASE Four members of the 8th parliament of Ghana,...

  I read with dismay a circular dated 13 th April, 2023, authored and circulated by the Ministry of Health to directorates, institutions and affiliate bodies under the Ministry. The Ministry’s directive is simply to remind these institutions that it has seen some Senior Staff in the Health Sector engaging in active partisan political activities. And that the Ministry is warning those Senior Staff to abreast themselves of the under listed guidelines and sanctions attached thereon, which guidelines and sanctions were culled from the Human Resource Management Policy and Manual for the Ghana Public Services particularly at pages 104 to 105: i.                    A Public Servant shall not openly participate in partisan political activities, seek political office whilst still in the public service or use Government facilities, equipment or resources to assist any candidate seeking elected politi...