Member of Parliament (MP) for Oforikrom Constituency, Ashanti Region and a member of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Honourable Emmanuel Marfo, has said that the loss of seats by some NPP Members of Parliament (MPs) will negatively affect the work in parliament.
In an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he reasoned that losing some of these MPs will mean that there will be a void in certain roles by certain people in parliament.
“You can imagine that someone has been in parliament for four years and then Parliament starts building his capacity for a certain key role only for the person to lose in the primaries. In other jurisdictions, the party assesses your performance when you go to parliament for four years and then maybe in your second term, leave you to the party executives.
The other aspect is in the case of someone like Honourable Ben Abdallah Banda who has lost. It is so sad because I am thinking of a replacement for him. His commitment to the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary affairs committee’ work in parliament is unmatched. And in parliament that is one of the loaded committees”, he said.
According to him, this phenomenon of sitting MPs losing their seat will only be creating a weak parliament. He, thus, recommended that political parties think about a strategy to maintain people whose roles in parliament are very crucial to the development of parliamentary works.
“The political parties need to sit down and think about a strategy that when somebody rises to a certain role, they are able to negotiate with the party to make sure that there is some form of protection or negotiation because some have served in certain roles that they have become institutions themselves”, he added.
In the just-ended New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentary Primaries, at least 9 chairpersons and vice-chairpersons have lost their bids to represent their constituents in Parliament.
Among those who have lost include the Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah who lost the New Juaben South seat to the Executive Secretary of Free Zones, Michael Okyere Baafi.
Ben Abdallah Banda, who is also the Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee has also lost the Offinso South seat.
