As early as 4 am, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament (MPs) were already on the floor of Parliament although proceedings for the day – a day the Speaker of Parliament will announce decisions on who is the Majority and who is the Minority – is expected to start at 10 am.
That is six hours before official parliamentary business in the Chamber begins.
Multiple news portals report that by 8:30 am, there were over 70 Members of Parliament from the NPP already in the Chamber, clad in white.
In posts made on their social media pages, some of the MPs had stated how early they got into the House, looking forward to what is expected to be an interesting day in Parliament especially since both sides until now, had independently been claiming to be the ones in the majority.
The decision of the MPs was to ensure that they do not miss out again on having the privilege to sit on the right side of the Speaker, which is the side of the House reserved for the Majority.
It will be recalled that on the night before January 7, 2021, when the new members were to be sworn in, and the election of a new Speaker was to take place, members of the NDC filed into the House early and occupied the seats on the right side of the Speaker.
The situation eventually escalated when the NPP MPs eventually entered the Chamber, leading to scuffles, disagreements and some chaos particularly because the NDC MPs refused to vacate the seats for their colleagues on the other side.
As it stands now, there is an equal number of seats in Parliament for both the NDC and the NPP (137 each), with one independent member whose decision on which side of the House to do business with is expected to mainly influence the decision on their majority or minority status henceforth.
The first engagement of the House will be the resolution of who forms the Majority and the Minority following which Speaker Alban Bagbin will bring finality on the matter.
Meanwhile, both the NPP and the NDC are in court, contesting the results of a total of 16 constituencies including those at the Hohoe, Assin North, Techiman South, Buem, Kintampo North and Sefwi Wiawso constituencies.
