Ugly scenes as Ghana MPs elect parliament speaker

Ghana's newly-elected members of parliament engaged in a scuffle on Wednesday night following a disagreement on the election of a new speaker. 

The speaker was to be elected by secret ballot, but MPs from the ruling New Patriotic Party(NPP) party kept displaying their marked ballot papers, to the displeasure of opposition MPs. 

At some point a ruling party MP snatched the ballot papers while voting was still underway, sparking a confrontation.

Armed police and troops temporarily stormed into the chambers to restore calm.

Both the opposition and the ruling party have 137 MPs each, plus there is one independent MP..

A court had issued an order barring one opposition MP from voting for the speaker pending the determination of a challenge on his election. But he was somehow allowed to cast a vote. 

The opposition has described last December's general election as flawed and has filed a challenge at the Supreme Court seeking annulment of the presidential election.

This article originally appeared on BBC News

Photo: BBC