There is problematic in voice voting for the approval of 2023 budget in Parliament - Hon Joseph Kwame Kumah

The member of Parliament for Kintanpo North constituency, Hon Joseph Kwame Kumah wants Article 104 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana to be amended.

 In Article 104 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana , there is a rule that vote follows voice, this means that your call of "Aye" or "No" should match your vote in ballot vote 

Honorable Joseph Kwame Kumah was expressed his dissatisfaction with the approval of the 2023 budget in Parliament with the voice voting on Wenchi based Radio West Africa in the Bono Regional town of Wenchi.

He explained that the Speaker had assessed that the government enjoyed the support of the house using the device of a voice vote rather than a ballot vote  .

A voice vote involves the Speaker of Parliament putting a question to the house and asking the house to put forward its opinion in form of ayes (yes)or noes based on a rough measure of which side was lauder, the Speaker decides if the motion was passed or fell through.

It recalled that when the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta first introduced the Electronic Transaction Levy (E - Levy) last year budget in Parliament a voice vote was conducted but was challenged by the minority and ask for a separation of legislators and then counting of heads a procedure still followed by secret voting he emphasized.

Hon Joseph Kwame Kumah explained that the apparent disadvantage in voice vote is that it is inaccurate and therefore called for the amendment of the law.

If the Speaker of Parliament allowed us to vote for secret ballots during the approval of this budget it would have lets our constituents know how we voted including the majority MPs'  the Kintanpo North MP said.