Article 95 of the 1992
Constitution provides for the election of a Speaker from among MPs or persons
qualified to be MPs.
This has been the practice since
1993 when the late Justice Daniel Francis Annan on January 7, 1993, was chosen
as the first Speaker of Parliament after Ghana returned to constitutional rule
following several military interventions.
Since then, the country has
successfully had seven Speakers of Parliament and on January 7, 2021, either
NDC’s Alban Bagbin or NPP’s Prof. Mike Oqauye would be given the nod to serve
in the 3rd highest position of the land.
On Monday, January 4, 2021, the
National Council of the New Patriotic Party nominated Professor Aaron Mike
Oquaye as the party’s candidate for the Speaker position.
Prof Oquaye, when elected, might
repeat the history of late Speaker of Parliament, D. F Annan who served two
terms (1993 to 2001)
The two-time Member of
Parliament for the Dome-Kwabenya constituency who assumed the position of
Speaker in 2017 once served as Ghana’s High Commissioner to India from 2001 to
2004.
The National Executive Council
of the National Democratic Congress also on January 6, motioned Alban Bagbin as
the party’s candidate for the role.
Alban Bagbin, the Second Deputy Speaker for the 7th
Parliament might also be the next NDC Speaker after Mr Edward Doe Adjaho who
led the Sixth Parliament of the Fourth Republic (2013 to 2017).
Mr Bagbin is Ghana’s
longest-serving legislator and outgoing Member of Parliament for Nadowli Kaleo
in the Upper West Region.
He has held a number of
positions in Parliament since 1994 and capped his lawmaking career with
positions such as Majority Leader, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on
Subsidiary Legislation, Vice Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Mines
and Energy, Member of the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development
and so on.
Ghana was left with a near hung
Parliament after the 2020 polls with the NPP and National Democratic Congress
all having 137 seats each in Parliament.
Unlike the seventh Parliament
where there was a clear Majority and Minority side of Parliament, the eighth
has a slim majority since a lot of the sitting NPP Members lost their seats
after the December 7 election.
An independent candidate, Andrew
Amoako Asiamah, who won the Fomena seat has said he will join the NPP to form a
Majority in Parliament despite being kicked out of the party because he decided
to run as an independent candidate.
In what was meant to be his last
State of the Nation address, President Akufo-Addo said the seeming ‘gridlock’
in the next House calls for tolerance and new ways of conducting affairs in the
chamber.
He said he anticipates a
dramatic change in the mood of the 8th parliament throughout its entire life
span.
“The next parliament is not going to be like this one that ends today. I do not suggest that the House might not be as busy but the sitting arrangement would certainly be different. The good people have spoken and given Parliament almost an equal strength on both sides of the house.
We have no choice but to work with the consequences of
the desires of the people. The House would have to be more accommodating of
each other’s views and probably device new ways of conducting its affairs in
the interest of the good governance of our people,” he stated.
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