Parliament has approved three nominees for appointment to Ghana’s Supreme Court, despite a boycott of their vetting by the Minority Caucus over concerns about the speed and procedure used to consider the nominations.
The approved nominees are Court of Appeal Justices Sophia Rosetta Bernasko-Essah and Edward Amoako Asante, together with private legal practitioner and former Ghana Bar Association President Anthony Forson Jnr.
The approval followed Parliament’s adoption of the report of the Appointments Committee, which recommended all three nominees after their vetting.
The process, however, was marked by disagreement between the Majority and Minority sides of the committee. Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin objected to the accelerated timetable, arguing that the nominees had not been given sufficient time for parliamentary and public scrutiny.
The Minority also questioned the urgency of the nominations, with Afenyo-Markin arguing that there was no immediate vacancy requiring the process to be rushed. He stressed that the objection was about the procedure and timeframe rather than the qualifications of the three nominees.
The Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Bernard Ahiafor, rejected the objection and directed that the vetting should continue. The Minority subsequently walked out, leaving the Majority side to proceed with the exercise.
The nominations were submitted by President John Dramani Mahama in consultation with the Judicial Council and were referred to Parliament during the House’s emergency sitting.
Parliament’s official account of the recall listed the three Supreme Court nominations among the urgent matters before the House.
The nominees bring different areas of legal experience to the proposed Supreme Court bench. Bernasko-Essah and Amoako Asante are serving Court of Appeal justices, while Forson has extensive experience in private legal practice and previously led the Ghana Bar Association. Amoako Asante also previously served as President of the ECOWAS Court of Justice.
With Parliament’s approval secured, the three nominees can now proceed with the remaining constitutional steps required for their appointment to the Supreme Court.
The immediate controversy, however, centres less on the nominees themselves and more on the parliamentary process used to consider their appointments.
The Minority’s concerns and the Majority’s decision to proceed have made the nominations a fresh point of political disagreement over how appointments to Ghana’s apex court should be scrutinised.
