Swearing in of 8th parliament: Behaviour of MPs ‘disgraceful, disgusting’ – Edgar Wiredu

Insurance analyst Edgar Wiredu has described the commotion that characterised the swearing-in of the eighth parliament and the election of a new Speaker on Thursday, 7 January 2020 as “disgraceful and disgusting.”

The process was characterised by complete pandemonium as some Members of Parliament put up unparliamentarily behaviour which resulted in near fisticuffs.

Perhaps the most noticeable unparliamentary behaviour being Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, MP for Tema West who in the full glare of his colleagues and the media snatched ballot sheets and bolted during the election of a new Speaker of the House.

The commotion began when the NDC MPs occupied the right side of the chamber which is reserved for the majority side. This led to a commotion between both the NDC and NPP MPs who were both claiming to have majority seat in parliament.

After the dust had settled, a fresh commotion arose when the NPP lawmakers requested the clerk of Parliament to enforce a court order restraining the Assin North NDC MP-elect James Gyakye Quayson, from partaking in the voting process to elect a speaker because the court had placed an injunction on him and ordered him not to hold himself as MP-elect and partake in the swearing in exercise.

This generated a long-heated argument between both sides.

Reacting to these developments on Anopa Dwabre Mu on CTV in Accra on Friday, 8 January 2020, Mr Wiredu told show host Nana Yaw Adwenpa that the action of the Parliamentarians is an embarrassment to the whole nation and they must, therefore, apologise to Ghanaians.

He said: “What happened in Parliament was very disgraceful, disgusting and the individuals in parliament who are parliamentarians who are expecting Ghanaians to refer to them as honourable, their image has actually sunk to the lowest.

“They have ridiculed themselves and the most painful part is that they have ridiculed the whole Ghana as a nation.

“Whatever respect that people have for us, whatever accolade we have chalked, they have destroyed it all by just that very action.

“At the end of the day, I don’t know if civil society will take up this matter or Bagbin himself as the new speaker is going to take up the matter which he should and render an apology in the highest order to the nation Ghana…”