National Democratic Congress (NDC) Chief Whip has confirmed that two out of five New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament (MP) who were undecided about their choice of Speaker of Parliament voted for Alban Bagbin.
He explained that, though they did not give him a concrete answer, their body language gave him a lot of hope.
After the fiercely contested election, the veteran politician, Mr Bagbin polled 138 votes against the immediate past Speaker Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye’s 136 with one MP failing to vote.
The NPP caucus in Parliament got the shock of their lives when after voting their choice for Speaker of Parliament Prof Oquaye lost the elections.
The NDC’s candidate, Mr Bagbin polled 138 votes against the immediate past Speaker Oquaye’s 136 with one MP failing to vote.
It, however, emerged that two of the NPP MPs were lobbied by the NDC MPs to vote for Mr Bagbin.
The Chief Whip was, however, not surprised about the outcome of the election since they did their homework well.
When pushed by host of Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme, Philip Osei Bonsu to mention names of the MPs, he exclaimed.
“EI! That will be very unfair to them. I will never betray them,” he told OB in an exclusive interview Monday.
What was the game-changer for them, the Asawase MP revealed, was the decision of now Speaker Bagbin to also engage three of the five NPP MPs.
His lobbying skills, he added, helped convince the MPs to vote for him to be Speaker of Parliament.