MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has spoken about the image challenge that Parliament stood to suffer after the house recorded a spoilt ballot in a January 7 speakership vote.

He asserted that it would have been better the ‘undecided’ MP had abstained than spoiling the ballot. According to him, there is a standing order that allowed an MP the liberty to not vote at all.

The former deputy education minister published a social media post that interrogated the issue of the spoilt ballot and wider implications on the house of parliament in what he called an “epic inauguration.”

Reports said the new speaker received 138 votes – potentially one vote from the New Patriotic Party – given that the National Democratic Congress officially has 137 MPs in the 275 seater chamber. NPP has 137 seats with the other seat going to an independent candidate.

The NPP leadership in parliament have since disputed the report that Bagbin won the vote outright. Deputy chief whip Habib Iddrisu is on record to have said Bagbin and Oquaye had each polled 136 votes with one spoilt ballot.

His full post is produced below:

It is exceedingly surprising that there was a spoilt ballot in Thursday’s nerve-racking election of Speaker by MPs, especially considering the level of electoral knowledge of the 275 persons who voted and the high stakes as a result of the equal numerical strength of the two leading political parties.

The offending ballot reveals that the said MP voted for both candidates and tried to cancel out one.

Whoever that MP was must have been going through a very difficult period of indecision or is it the case that he/she simply proceeded to the ballot booth as a spoiler?

Perhaps we should all be reminded of Standing Order 113 (5) which stipulates: “A Member is not obliged to vote.”

Better to stay away from voting if your mind is not made up than to make a mess of the process and have Parliament record spoilt ballots. That only worsens the image challenges of the legislative body. Another useful lesson to learn from that epic inauguration of the 8th Parliament.