If monetization of primaries is not stopped, I won't stand as MP again - Appiah-Kubi

Member of Parliament for Asante- Akim North, Hon. Andy Kwame Appiah-Kubi, has expressed displeasure at the monetization which has characterized the country's politics in recent times.

Speaking to the press after the just ended New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) primaries, lawyer Appiah-Kubi decried the manner in which some aspirants pumped so much many into the recent elections, thus making politics unattractive.

Whiles warning that he might opt out of such primaries in the near future, the NPP MP opined that contesting for an election should not be an "open" one.

"If the monetization is not stopped, I am not going to stand as a Member of Parliament again... Parliamentary race should not be an open contest noting that competent persons with professions should rather be voted into Ghana’s Parliament," he said.

His statement comes in the wake of the recent parliamentary primaries held on Saturday, January 27, 2024, where some aspirants shared huge sums of money in addition to some hading out motorbikes, fridges and television sets.

According to Hon Appiah-Kubi, "Most of our people are losing because they didn’t have the capacity and the financial resources to contest. Some of us have come through because of our professional earnings.

"we cannot continue to earn money in our professions and come and dump them into politics and even attract the insults; the undermining and the name calling."

The lawmaker added that if the modus operandi in selecting MPs is not checked, Ghana’s parliament will be filled with very incompetent MPs.

"I am serving this note that if we don’t change our ways of selection, I will not be a candidate next time. We need to select people who have the capacity, the competence, the interest and the energy to go into Parliament. We don’t have to pick anybody to go into Parliament," he fumed.