Former Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ayensuano Constituency, Samuel Ayeh-Paye has revealed that some parliamentarians do not retire of their own accord.
Rather, they do so, based on knowledge that they are likely to lose the elections.
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The former MP made this known during an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show when he said: “A lot of people do not go back to parliament because they fear defeat so if they study the ground and realize that they are bound to lose, they do not contest again. But to willingly leave parliament is not easy”.
Illustrating his point, he shared an example of how a fellow MP who was regarded as “the referral note for parliament” had to retire from parliament for fear of losing in the next election.
“I spoke to one MP. Sometimes the Speaker of Parliament seeks his opinion when we are fixed and there is no guidance in our standing order. The Speaker always asks for his opinion and then we can move on because the discretion of the speaker should be the option. He became the referral note for parliament so we were surprised he was leaving parliament. When we asked him, he said he didn’t want any embarrassment. In fact, for him if he didn’t take time, he will lose the next election but he had come out to say he was tired of contesting again. But if you keenly observe what he says you could tell that if not for the fear of losing he would have contested again”, he related.
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Meanwhile, Ayeh-Paye has said that what MPs earn for their work in parliament is not enough and as such he would encourage all MPs to have a side job to survive.
Samuel Ayeh-Paye, lost his seat as MP for Ayensuano to NDC’s Nana Yaw Teddy Addy.
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah
