NPP Primaries: Speaker Urges Defeated MPs to Continue with Parliamentary Work

Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament, Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye has implored the 40 incumbent MPs who lost in the just ended New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentary primaries to not abandon their legislative duties in spite of their defeat.

According to the Speaker, politics is characterised by such outcomes, and whether “lose or win”, an individual should continue playing their role to help nation building.

“Being out of Parliament does not mean you are not going to serve. We all know that you can leave Parliament and serve in government and some even do that more strongly outside Parliament. It affects both the left and the right and we know of precedents in this regard. I will say let us attend to the business of the House in all seriousness and in all practice so that if fortune smile on your party, some of us can still continue to play an impact role and if fortune also smiles on the people on the right you will also be able to play a meaningful role in building this nation, Ghana,” he said addressing the House on last weekend’s NPP’s primaries

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The Speaker congratulated the winners and wished those who were unseated better luck next time.

“Congratulations to those who won and those who did not, better luck next time. We are in a very competitive situation and in fact, one thing we should all realise is that sometimes you lose and sometimes you win. Once you win a fight, be prepared to lose one someday. That’s the name of the game and in fact, if nobody lost, nobody would have been here. And even for our followers, let us learn to rather cool them down.”

The NPP held its parliamentary primaries in constituencies it has sitting Members of Parliament on June 20, 2020.

In related developments, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has chided the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) for not adhering to the covid-19 safety protocols in their recently held Parliamentary Primaries.

According to the opposition party, the NPP Primaries which was supposedly conducted in disregarded to covid-19 safety directives, might have consequences on the country’s fight against the pandemic.

The NDC also alleged that last Saturday’s parliamentary primary by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) was characterized by vote-buying and electoral violence, which was an affront to the country's democracy.