The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Effiduase/Asokore Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie, has emphasised that in future some sitting members may reject leadership positions if the political parties do not resolve to protect them from undue competition during their parliamentary primaries.
About 41 New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs, most of whom hold leadership positions (chairmen and vice chairmen of some parliamentary select Sub-committees levels in Parliament), lost their seats in the just-ended parliamentary primaries of the party.
Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie referred to Dr. Assibey-Yeboah, MP for New Juaben South and Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, and Ben Abdallah Banda, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, who were defeated in their respective constituencies.
Fredrick Opare Ansah, Chairman of the Communications Committee; William Quaitoo, Chairman of the Education Committee, Collins Owusu Amankwaah, Chairman of the Government Assurances Committee, and Alex Agyekum, Chairman of the Youth and Sports Committee, all lost at the primaries.
The Vice-Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Abraham Odoom, Vice-Chairman of the Roads Committee, Kofi Brako, and the Vice-Chairman of the Trade and Industry Committee, Ato Panford, were also defeated.
Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie further noted, while speaking in an interview with Angel FM, a local radio station in Kumasi on Tuesday, said the humiliating “defeat of a very hardworking MP like Ben Abdallah Bandah could be attributed to the enourmity of work he had to do in parliament, coupled with work at the constituency level, that gave his contender the upper hand to unseat him”.
As a result, the Effiduase/Asokore lawmaker noted that in future MPs may shy away from vigorous parliamentary committee work for fear of losing their seats, because they may not have enough time to attend to issues in their constituencies.
The post MPs may reject leadership positions in parliament in future -MP appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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