Parliamentary candidate for Tamale Central, Murtala Mohammed, has bemoaned political parties’ decision to impose Member of Parliament to constituents.

According to him, political parties should allow people to contest parliamentary primaries irrespective of who the siting MP is.

He said the whole idea of declaring some constituencies unopposed is undemocratic and an insult to the constituents.

Murtala Mohammed was speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb on the side of the opening of nomination for the NPP primaries to be held in April.

The NPP has announced that their April parliamentary primaries will exclude the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency Lydia Seyram Alhassan will run unopposed.

By this decision, the Awayaso West Wougon Constituency becomes the only constituency in the country where the NPP will not hold Parliamentary Primaries ahead of this year’s General Elections.

With reasons that Lydia Alhassan has conducted herself creditably in meeting the legitimate expectations of her constituents and the party at large hence the need to go unopposed.

Murtala Mohammed said “every political party should allow people to contest in parliamentary primaries, it doesn’t matter who the sitting MP is. This idea of wanting to declare certain constituency unopposed such that no one will contest the sitting MP for me does not only make it undemocratic, but also an insult to the people the MP represent. If you are a Member of Parliament, you should allow your work to speak for itself”.

“The work you have done as a Member of Parliament if the people are satisfied they will elect you again but if they are dissatisfied with your work and what you have done as a Member of Parliament I don’t think they will elect you. If you are a member of parliament and you think you have done so well why will you be afraid of being contested in a parliamentary primary. People should be allowed to contest,” he added.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is set to hold their Parliamentary primaries in areas where it has sitting Members of Parliament (MP) on April 25, 2020.

The same April 25 date would be used to elect a flagbearer for the party for Election 2020.