The Minority Caucus in Parliament strongly condemned what it described as a blatant violation of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, following the simultaneous absence of the President, Vice President, and Speaker of Parliament from the country, without the formal swearing-in of an Acting President.

In a statement issued on Monday, May 12, 2025, the Minority revealed that all three top officeholders were out of the country at the same time, a situation they argued directly contravene Article 60 of the Constitution. The provision mandates that when both the President and Vice President are unavailable, the Speaker of Parliament must be sworn in to act as President.

At the time, President John Dramani Mahama was attending the African Union Debt Conference in Togo, while Vice President Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman was in the United Kingdom receiving medical treatment, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, who constitutionally should have stepped in, was also reportedly out of the country.

With all the three constitutional leaders unavailable, the next in line, according to the Constitution, would be the Chief Justice. However, Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo was then under suspension, which further compounded the leadership vacuum.

The Minority described the situation as a “deliberate and calculated” act, accusing the government of treating the Constitution “as an inconvenience rather than a binding framework.”

The statement, signed by the Minority’s legal counsel, John Darko, warned that such constitutional infractions threaten the foundation of Ghana’s democracy and undermine public trust in the country’s governance structures.