<<Print>>Member of Parliament (MP) for Kade constituency Ofosu Asamoah has stated that, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) will end up packing ‘comedians’ into Parliament if they allow all those who have picked forms to contest.
“I was very shock when I saw the NDC gurus forcing to join the train to parliament. The party should just be careful they don’t allow comedians into our parliament because parliament is a very important institution” he said.
NDC opened nominations for the party’s primaries Thursday.
The race for the 275 parliamentary slots of the governing party appears to be striking as scores of people, especially young men and women are scrambling for nomination forms to contest in the NDC’s November 7 parliamentary primaries.
At best, what is threatening to hit the current legislative front of the NDC could be described as a tsunami, if one considers how some constituencies are bent on carrying out their threats to unseat their MPs.
But the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP speaking on Adom FM’s morning show ‘Dwaso Nsem’ Friday said Parliament is a very important institution and so they should check activities of those who have shown interest to represent their people in parliament.
He said most of the constituents vote based on popularity of the candidates and not the capabilities of those aspiring MPs so the ruling party should make sure they present knowledgeable candidates to the electorates for selection.
The Kade insisted that some of the people who have shown interest do not merit the position they are vying for adding that if the NDC allows such people to contest they will end up packing what he termed as ‘comedians’ in parliament.
He questioned the loyalty and commitment of those aspirants who claim they are NDC in the quiet to the Party and Ghana as a whole.
Mr. Asamoah added that “some of the aspirants think parliament is an easy way to be ministers because their colleagues passed through the same channel which some of them have become problematic ministers. That is why some of us are advocating that we separate the executives from legislator”.
On his part, the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the NDC, Joseph Ade Coker said youth transition in Parliament is not a bad thing but the country need to get a system that will nurture them.
He said four years is too short a time to access an MP because he is a back bencher who struggles to catch the speaker’s eye during that period.
“Some people have not even caught the eyes of the speaker and has become endangered species…We should all sit down and look at the role that we want our parliament should play” he concluded.