Rumpus over new speaker is dangerous

The head of the Governance Center of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Kwesi Jonah says the disagreement that characterised the selection of a Speaker of parliament last week could be dangerous for the country's democracy.

Parliament on Friday struggled through a marathon session to elect a speaker and a second deputy speaker.

In an unprecedented move in the history of the fourth republican parliament both the majority and minority submitted nominations for the position of speaker.

The majority proposed Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes, who eventually won over the immediate past speaker, Peter Ala Adjetey who was favoured by the minority.

As a fall out from the minority's opposition to their choice of a speaker, the majority again used their numbers to elect a second deputy speaker breaking a convention in which the position was given to the minority.

Commenting on the show of power by both the sides, Mr Jonah said the turn of events could affect future consensus building in parliament.

"A speaker needs the support of both sides but if at the start the two sides could not come to a concnesus on the matter it is possible it would trickle through other business of the house where consensus would ben needed", he said