Member of Parliament (MP) for Asawase, Muntaka Mubarak, has revealed he engaged at least 35 MPs of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) while lobbying for his party’s choice to be elected as Speaker of Parliament.
The NPP was pushing for Prof Mike Oquaye to be retained and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) also presented former Nadowli Kaleo MP, Alban Bagbin as their candidate.
The test for both sides was to ensure their 137 legislators vote for their respective candidates.
Based on this backdrop, the Asawase MP, who was the Minority Chief Whip, said he engaged on a submarine campaign.
“I spoke to not less than 35 NPP MPs individually but five were undecided and realised I could get at least two to vote for Bagbin,” he disclosed in an interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Monday.
His luck, the Chief Whip said was that, he realised the leadership of the NPP in Parliament was not engaging anyone and “I capitalised on that to win some of their members”.
He, however, did not also relax on their side since according to him, although the former Nadowli Kaleo MP was from their side, there was no guarantee that all members of the party would be happy with his nomination.
“While engaging the NPP MPs I was also talking to my people to ensure that all the 137 vote for Bagbin,” he added.
Mr Mubarak was happy his hard work paid off and he was able to make history in Ghana.
After the fiercely contested election, the veteran politician, Mr Bagbin polled 138 votes against the immediate past Speaker Aaron Mike Oquaye’s 136 with one MP failing to vote.
Mr Bagbin has made history for being the first person from an opposition party to be elected Speaker of Parliament.