The Majority Leader of Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, has filed a formal complaint against the Minority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, demanding that he be referred to the Privileges Committee of the House.
Moving the application during proceedings on Tuesday, November 11, 2025, the Majority Leader said his motion was in response to the Minority Leader’s refusal to adhere to the reconstitution of the country’s delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament.
He noted that the Minority Leader’s refusal and decision to attend the ECOWAS Parliament led to the entire Ghanaian delegation initially being refused to be sworn in during the last session of the ECOWAS Parliament. According to him, it had to take threats by Ghana to withdraw entirely for the delegation to be sworn in.
He therefore called on the Speaker to refer the Minority Leader to the Privileges Committee on charges of contempt and to strip him of his privileges if found to have breached the orders of the House.
The House in July approved a reconstitution of the country’s delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament, replacing Afenyo-Markin with his deputy, Patricia Appiagyei.
Afenyo-Markin, who had been sworn in as a member and elected Third Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament the previous year, was initially nominated by the Minority Caucus alongside MPs Kwame Anyimadu Antwi and Bryan Acheampong.
The move, proposed by Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga, aimed to comply with ECOWAS’s 30% gender quota for female representation and align with parliamentary tradition, which typically reserves such roles for deputy leaders rather than caucus heads.
The decision sparked immediate backlash from the Minority side, who decried it as a unilateral imposition of majority power without consultation, potentially violating ECOWAS protocols. Under ECOWAS rules (Article 18(2) of the Supplementary Act), members serve fixed four-year terms that cannot be arbitrarily interrupted by national bodies, except via resignation or disqualification.
Patricia Appiagyei subsequently rejected her nomination in a memo to the Speaker on July 22, 2025, calling it “procedurally improper, politically divisive,” and a “calculated attempt to divide” the Minority Caucus. She insisted she was not consulted and urged reversal to the original list.