Atik Mohammed says the defeat of some sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) primaries on Saturday, June 20, 2020 may not augur well for the party in the national Parliamentary elections.
Forty (40) MPs reportedly lost their seats to new Parliamentary aspirants who will then contest at the national level, come December 7th, to represent their constituencies and the NPP in Parliament.
Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has expressed worry over the loss of the experienced MPs saying it is a major setback as it impedes the work of the Legislative House.
He has therefore called on the NPP leadership to institute a mechanism to protect the sitting MPs.
Addressing the issue in an interview, Atik Mohammed believed should the NPP fail to do their homework well, they may lose a lot of the Parliamentary seats to their opponents during the general elections.
He exposited that the Parliamentarians who lost their positions are largely the ones who took the seats from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and so losing them may give the opposition party an upperhand.
“Some of the losses, some of the incumbents that they lost; they might have some effects coming their way. When you look at the diffference between NPP and NDC in terms of Parliamentary seats, some were seats that were taken from NDC that was for the first time…Those who don’t deserve protection, you have protected them but those who worked hard to claim the seats for the first time, you have unseated them. If you don’t take care, you will lose those seats,” he said.
