Members of Parliament, irrespective of party affiliations, must unite to advance the national agenda given the sharp divide in which the house has found itself.

Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, leader of the ruling New Patriotic Party, NPP, made the call during a press conference held by the caucus in parliament today.

The MP said it was time for lawmakers to “bond and band, (to be) corporative and collaborative.”

Whiles admitting that disagreements were to be expected, he stressed that governance needed to go on: “We are bound to disagree but that should not stall government business.”

On other issues, he reiterated that the process leading to the emergence of new speaker, Alban Bagbin, was a consensual selection; not based on an election.

He referred to the clerk’s announcement of the new speaker, recalling that there were no figures involved in the declaration.

The NPP, he added, had agreed to Bagbin as speaker in order to curtail further disruption of the voting process.

The NPP presser was a direct response to an earlier one by the opposition National Democratic Congress caucus. The NDC is insisting that the question of majority and minority in the house remained to be settled.

The only independent candidate, Fomena MP, has since declared his willingness to work with the NPP. With that, the party gets 138 MPs as against the NDC’s 137. The next sitting is on January 15 and that question is expected to be settled conclusively.