Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin
•Bagbin says the NDC tried to ‘break the 8’ but failed
•The NPP is also bent on ‘breaking the 8’ in 2024
•Bagbin says it remains to be seen if that can be achieved
The 2024 elections may be three years away but political parties are already lacing their boots with campaign slogans already on the streets.
For the National Democratic Congress it is the return of former President John Dramani Mahama whiles the governing New Patriotic Party’s campaign is anchored on the belief of ‘Breaking the 8’.
It has become a common song in the mouth of members of NPP who believe strongly that for the first time under the fourth republic, a political party could run the country beyond two four-year terms.
Whiles the issue of its next flagbearer remains thorny with Vice President Mahamudu set to go head-to-head with Trade Minister, Alan Kwadwo Kyeremateng, there is confidence within the party that irrespective of who gets the nod to represent the party in 2024, power will be retained.
They however face a big test in John Dramani Mahama and the NDC who according to the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin were convinced of ‘breaking the 8’ in 2016.
Bagbin says there was conviction that the party had done enough to win the trust of Ghanaians for another four years.
As it emerged, the party lost the election with over a million vote difference and Bagbin is eager to see if the NPP can become the first political party under the fourth republic to win three consecutive elections.
“Our colleagues, like us – yes we did it before, are saying today that as for the next election they will win it. Yes, they say they will break it.
“In 2016, my party the NDC said the same thing. As for that one for sure they were breaking it. We didn’t break it. They are saying now they will. We’re hearing them; we shall see whether they can do that,” he asserted.
The Speaker of Parliament made the comments when he met a delegation from Ethiopia’s Political Parties Joint Council (EPPJC) in Parliament on Wednesday, August 11, 2021.
Bagbin assured further that he will be neutral and firm in his dealings as Speaker of Parliament and not favor the NDC on whose ticket he became Speaker.
“I will do everything, when I am performing my functions as the Speaker, to be impartial. It is not when I am performing my functions as a member of my party. That is different. That one I cannot be impartial. I have to perform my party function,” he stressed. “But as a Speaker, I will do everything to be impartial on the floor of the House. I won’t satisfy the NDC and I will not satisfy the NPP. They will both be against me.
“I have to satisfy the good people of Ghana and advance the course of democracy. It is national interest that should prevail,” he stressed.