It was chaos again in Parliament on Monday night – similar to what was witnessed at the beginning of the year when Parliament was voting for a new Speaker – during voting on the controversial E-levy bill.

During the voting process – on whether the E-levy bill should be taken under a certificate of urgency in the plenary or not – the minority got incensed over attempts by the presiding Speaker, Joe Osei-Owusu who is also the MP for Bekwai Constituency in the Ashanti Region to leave the chair to cast his vote.

Barely a week ago the Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin on his return from his medical leave abroad had said according to the standing orders of the house, a person who is a member of parliament who sits as the speaker forfeits his rights to cast a vote on any matter before the house during the proceedings.

This the minority had earlier during the debate on the matter raised issues with and contended that per parliament’s standing orders, the Speaker of Parliament does not have a casting vote, giving an indication that they were not going to allow for that to happen the second time, however, Joe Osei Owusu indicated that, he would still vote.

The single act of the sit-in Speaker Joe Osei Owusu who is the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament led to parliamentarians’ exchange blows among themselves while some officials of parliamentary services try to protect the Speaker’s seat and the mace of parliament from being attacked.

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, before the chaos, had described the controversial e-levy bill as ‘technically incompetent’ insisting that his side will fiercely resist it.