After three hours of heated debate, the Parliament of Ghana has finally ratified the bill allowing government to offload 70% of its shares in Ghana Telecom to Vodafone UK. The controversial transaction was endorsed on Thursday amidst wrangling and cacophony of noises from both sides of the House, giving a hectic time to the Speaker, who struggled to maintain calm and order in the House. After both sides had extensively expressed their opinions about the deal, the Speaker of Parliament, Ebenezer Sakyi-Hughes, called for a voice counting and the Majority won it with yeah! Yeah!! However, the Minority Leader, Alban Gbagbin, was not convinced when the Speaker ruled in favour of the Majority and called for a head count to ascertain the truth about the actual people who are in favour of the deal. The Clark of Parliament was therefore asked to undertake a head count, which again, the Majority won by 124 to 74. In the course of the debate, the House was sharply divided between those for and against the deal with both sides taking entrenched positions. Even though members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said they were not in utter disagreement with the sale of GT, they argued that Ghana was not being given the best offer. The Deputy Minority Leader, Mr. Doe Adjaho, who articulated the Minority's stand to conclude its position on the deal said “it is not in the national interest to reject the better offer, in every respect,and to go for an offer which is not in the best interest of the country…I therefore, invite this Honourable House to oppose this motion.” The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, who winded up for the Majority side prayed the House to accept the offer as it was the best. Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu said “We are aware of the political implications of everything...Mr. Speaker let us move forward, Ghana has got one of the best deals. Mr. Speaker, we are moving forward there is no better offer.” The UK-based Vodafone Group Plc has now legally acquired 70% shares of Ghana Telecom for $900 million.