THE MEMBER of Parliament for Tema West in the Greater Accra Region who snatched ballot papers during the Speaker election in Parliament on Thursday, Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah has apologised for his action.
He explained that his conduct was as a result of his love for his party.
The former Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry has come under fierce criticisms for snatching some ballots during counting after MPs voted to elect a Speaker for the 8th Parliament.
In his statement of apology, Mr Ahenkorah stated that “It’s a very tough situation to have opposition as a 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 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 heartbroken 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 apologise but I tried!!!”.
According to him, considering the slim margin between the two parties, “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.”
Touching on his reason for his acton, he indicated that “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 apologise but i tried!!!”
Meanwhile, the fierce election of the speaker ended with a former NDC legislature, Alban S.K. Bagbin emerging winner and making as the first in Ghana’s history to have an opposition member as Speaker.
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FROM Vincent Kubi, Tema