Ghana: Democracy wins as Speaker of Parliament position goes to the opposition party

Once again, the democracy of Ghana has seen a paradigm shift with the opposition party, NDC, which lost the presidential elections although it is contesting the results of the election as declared by the Electoral Commission, winning the election of the Speaker of the 8th Parliament.

After the stiff tussle and debate prior to the election of the Speaker in parliament chamber, the former Member of Parliament (MP) for Nadowli Kaleo and former second deputy speaker of the 7th Parliament, Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin has provisionally been elected speaker for the 8th Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

The provisional results suggest that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) side of the house beat the New Patriotic Party (NPP) side with two votes extra to put Mr. Bagbin ahead of the former speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye who was re-nominated as the NPP’s candidate in a 138 and 136 votes respectively, with one spoilt ballot.

It had been a marathon of confusion on the floor of Parliament right from the dissolution of the 7th Parliament all through to the election of a new speaker.

An election process that started moments after 12:00am January, 7 ran through the night to about 6:00am.

Bagbin is a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and has represented the Nadowli Kaleo constituency from the Upper West Region in Parliament Seven consecutive times.

More soon…