Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has explained why Mohammed Hardi Tuferu‘s vote was included despite his absence in parliament for the New Tex Bills.
Alban Bagbin, claims that nothing unusual happened during the approval of the new tax laws, despite the absence of one of the Majority Party MPs due to an accident.
On his way to participate in a vote on the new tax bills brought before parliament, Mohammed Hardi Tuferu, MP for Nanton, was involved in an accident.
According to the Speaker, he did nothing wrong by including Mr. Hardi Tuferu in the headcounts conducted on the floor of parliament.
“Members who are incapacitated shall upon reporting their incapacity to the Speaker through the Clerk shall be recorded. We have some of our members that are incapacitated and what I did was to ask the Whips to go and physically see them to assess their incapacitation and whether they are of sound mind.” he said
Regardless of the tragic situation, the lawmaker was helped to participate in the exercise by his fellow members of the majority caucus before being taken to the hospital.
As the lawmaker was being brought to the chamber in an ambulance, the Speaker ordered the Whips from both parties to explain the situation. After the procedures were completed, Speaker Alban Bagbin explained why the lawmaker’s vote was counted.
Based on the results of the headcount votes, 136 MPs from the Minority caucus voted against the bill, while 137 MPs from the Majority caucus voted to pass the new tax bills.
Source – Tru News Report
