Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been sworn-in as the President of the Republic of Ghana to begin his second term in office.
The swearing-in ceremony took place at the forecourt of the Parliament House Thursday afternoon.
Akufo-Addo won the December elections with over 51 per cent of total valid votes cast to secure a second term in office.
Before the swearing-in of President Akufo-Addo, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was sworn-in as the Vice President of Ghana.
The process leading to the swearing-in ceremony was nearly marred after soldiers stormed Ghana’s parliament over a protracted stalemate between MPs-elect over the election of a new Speaker of the House.
The election went into a near-violent hold up after leadership of the NDC in the House accused their colleagues from the NPP of violating the secret ballot rule of the election by showing their ballot to themselves.
Details on Chaos
Chaos erupted in Parliament over the court injunction directed at the MP-elect for Assin North James Gyekye Quayson.
Both sides of the House have been in protracted verbal exchanges over the legality or otherwise for the MP-elect to partake in the election of a Speaker for the 8th Parliament.
While the NDC MPs insist their the summon was not properly served on the clerk of Parliament who is chairing the sitting, the NPP MPs argue the MP-elect cannot be allowed to vote since the court injunction bars him.
After a long night of drama, Parliament by consensus retained Joe Osei Wusu as the 1st Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
Both NDC and NPP MPs also by consensus have settled on Amoako Andrew Asiamah, the Independent Member of Parliament for the Fomena constituency as the 2nd Deputy Speaker of the 8th Parliament.
Mr Asiamah was sacked from parliament and disowned by the NPP for going independent in the run up to the 2020 elections.
He, however, won the elections as an independent candidate convincingly and has indicated his willingness to sit with the NPP in Parliament.
The decision by the MPs came after the former MP for Nadowli-Kaleo surprisingly won the Speakership race polling 138 votes to beat incumbent Speaker, Professor Mike Oquaye.
The results sent shock waves across the aisles where NPP MPs were seated. Visibly shocked and dejected, NPP MPs who were very hopeful that their members will retain Prof. Oquaye found it hard to accept the results of the laborious voting process.
Carlos Ahenkorah snatches ballot papers in Parliament
Member of Parliament-elect for Tema West Carlos Ahenkorah shocked his colleague incoming lawmakers when snatched ballot papers during counting in the controversial polls to elect a Speaker for the 8th Parliament.
The MP-elect was however chased and seized from exiting the chamber with the snatched ballots by MPs from the NDC aisle of the House. The papers have since been redeemed.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
