The Member of Parliament for Tema West Constituency and the deputy minister for trade and industry, Carlos Ahenkorah, has broken the silence on what led him to snatch the ballot papers from the hands of the parliamentary officials. In a social media post, Hon Carlos Ahenkorah wrote :
My party, the NPP, of course, enjoys a slim majority in parliament courtesy of 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 them and work things out with them, but they declined while almost assaulting the themarshalss 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 assigned 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 unfavorable agreements ever. A clause in the constitution forbids anyone who isn't qualified to vote in parliament to vote. If the injured MP-elect decides to vote, he suffers the consequences afterward 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 wouldn't allow any whipping; in other 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 have 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 should have complied. The clerk ruled that voting could commence after abit ofe 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 ran off that someone was showing their ballot while 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 the NPP and carry the day. So, I indicated to leadership the dangers of that ruling. After voting a faithful truth, to my words, the NPP votes counted 136 instead of the 138 numbers we had. I wouldn't accept that.
The irregularities accompanying the voting from the start were too many, which had compromised the franchise 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 president's policies and laws to pave the way for development. My colleagues on the majority side couldn't help but take advantage of my sacrifices to force a rerun, and we had to settle for an opposition speaker.
I must say I am heartbroken and dejected. We've nyet to seethe end of this 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 more excellent NPS party as a whole because we cannot always allow the NDC to threaten and vilify us. I apologize, 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!!!