My party the NPP of course enjoys a slim majority in parliament courtesy
the independent candidate from Fomena. By this arithmetic, the NPP was
supposed to occupy the right side of the speaker in the chamber. When we
got to parliament, the opposition had occupied our seats. We tried to
convince and work things out with them but they declined whilst almost
assaulting the Marshal's of parliament. We conceded because of the
inauguration ahead of us and sat in their space. Then the clerk of
parliament announced that the injuncted assin north mp couldn't vote by
virtue of a court order served on him.
After a long heated
debate, the ndc still wouldn't yield. Leadership went into conclave and
returned with one of the most unfavourable agreements ever. That a
clause in the constitution forbids anyone who isn't qualified to vote in
parliament to vote. If the injuncted mp elect decides to vote he
suffers the consequences afterwards himself. How ridiculous! What if his
vote changes the outcome of the elections before he goes to court?
Then
we got to voting and the minority claimed they won't allow any
whipping, in order words no one can show their vote to their whips after
voting. Really?
Then what's the whip system for? Why do we
have whips? Since the beginning of the 4th Republic, elections had
always been controlled by whips to ensure their members vote on a
particular line. It happens everywhere in this world. Asking us not to
be whipped sent us all wondering. The npp didn't comply. The clerk ruled
that voting could commence after a little back and forth. As the first
few npp members voted ,the ndc whip in the person of muntaka attacked an
npp member and collected his ballot paper from him because he's shown
it to someone. A scuffle ensued and he took the ballot box itself and
the ballots inside away. After a long wait, balloting recommenced. This
time the same muntaka took the ballot box and run off that someone was
showing their ballot whiles John Jinapor and Sam George kick boxed the
voting booth. This act happened 3x so leadership had to go into conclave
once more. Upon their return they asked us not to show our votes
anymore. I Immediately sensed danger especially when during voting we
noticed many skirmishes where some opposition members would cross over
into the npp voting booth to vote there etc.
Looking at the slim
margin between us ,(NPP and NDC)all the ndc had to do was to lure or
convince a couple of members of npp and carry the day. So I indicated to
leadership the dangers in that ruling. After voting and true to my
words, the npp votes counted 136 instead of 138 numbers we had. I
wouldn't accept that. The irregularities accompanying the voting from
the start were too many which had compromised the voting so much so that
I wanted to create a situation for a rerun. Just as my colleague from
the other side took the ballot box away on 3 occasions, I also grabbed a
few ballot papers before they could be counted so as to force a rerun.
It's a very tough situation to have opposition as speaker especially
when he's the president in the absence of Nana Addo and his vice not to
mention how parliament would function by passing the presidents policies
and laws to pave way for development. My colleagues on the majority
side couldn't help take advantage of my sacrifices to force a rerun and
we'd to settle for an opposition speaker.
I must say i am heart
broken and dejected. We've not seen the end of this yet. With this
success they would tell us what they want and what they don't in
parliament because the whip system has been compromised. This is so sad.
I'll die for my party any day.
I did it for the grassroots who
relied on us in power to survive, the president who needs some peace to
run the country and the greater npp party as a whole because we cannot
always allow the ndc to threaten and vilify us. I apologise though to my
family and friends both far and near who may be affected by my actions.
The NPP in me couldn't be controlled. I apologize but I tried!!!
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