'I didn't have full support of NDC' - Alban Bagbin recounts Speaker election

Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has broken his silence on how he became Speaker in 2021.

Speaking at the IPR Ghana 2026 National PR Conference and Excellence Awards in Koforidua, on October 23, 2026, he revealed that he did not have the full support of his own party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), as many of its MPs failed to vote for him.

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He said he had to rely on votes from members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which was the governing party at the time and had fielded a candidate against him.

According to Bagbin, the NPP MPs voted for him because they trusted him to be balanced and impartial.

“The low numbers that I had in Parliament; I won the position as the Speaker over the party’s incumbent Speaker who contested me.

“I had the details. It's not all NDC members who voted for me. I know what I'm talking about. Many more NPP members voted for me to be speaker in 2021,” he revealed.

Bagbin, representing the NDC, contested and won against NPP’s Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye, who had served as the Speaker of the 7th Parliament.

Bagbin won the secret ballot on the floor of Parliament with 138 votes, while Aaron Mike Oquaye received 136 votes.

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He became the first Speaker in Ghana's Fourth Republic to be elected from an opposition party.

MAG/VPO

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