Soldiers were briefly deployed after the unusual scenes in one of Africa’s most stable democracies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president defeated his main rival, former President John Mahama, in December’s tightly fought election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He faces the twin challenges of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and trying to boost the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ghana has had more than 50,000 confirmed cases of the virus, and like many countries has experienced major economic disruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things came to a head in parliament while MPs were voting on a new speaker. The situation escalated after one MP snatched a ballot paper and tried to run out of the building with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“There was total breakdown of law and order,” said MP-elect Kwame Twumasi Ampofo of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scuffles between MPs from the NDC and Mr Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party (NPP), neither of which has a majority, were eventually broken up by soldiers who briefly intervened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An NDC MP, Alban Bagbin, was later sworn in as speaker. It is the first time Ghana has a president and speaker from different parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this week, in what was the final speech of his first term in office, President Akufo-Addo had urged parliamentarians to unite and accommodate each others’ views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two parties have exactly the same number of MPs in the newly elected legislature, so there is the possibility of political gridlock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week the NDC filed a petition at the Supreme Court seeking to annul President Nana Akufo-Addo’s victory, citing voting irregularities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president obtained 51.6% of the vote in the 7 December election, compared with 47.4% won by Mr Mahama, who served in the top job from 2012 to 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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