NPP primaries: Incumbents who rely on government will face challenges – Seidu Alidu

Incumbent Members of Parliament (MPs) of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who solely rely on the government to provide for the needs of their constituents will face challenges in their quest to retain their seats.

Professor Seidu Alidu, Head of the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, observed that in the wake of the economic challenges, MPs who depended largely on the government to address the concerns of their constituents might not be able to meet the expectations.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency ahead of the NPP’s parliamentary primaries, Prof. Alidu said the general performance of the government could have implications on the acceptability of candidates.

He however indicated that MPs who had the capacity to mobilise resources to nurture their constituencies were most likely to secure re-election irrespective of the performance of the government.

“It is possible that the government may have challenges but some specific MPs who come from that particular party and have been able to maintain very good relations and have been able to do exceptionally well in that constituencies, that tsunami will not affect them.

“MPs who just depend on government performance to be able to change the course of their seats in parliament will definitely face challenges,” he said.

The NPP will on Saturday, January 27, 2023, conduct primaries to elect parliamentary candidates in constituencies where the Party has sitting MPs.

The Party currently has 137 seats in Parliament.

A total of 356 aspirants have been cleared to participate in the January 27 primaries.

Some 17 aspirants were disqualified whereas two aspirants dropped out of the race.

Prof. Alidu cautioned that the Party’s inability to resolve the grievances of some disqualified aspirants and the attempts to ensure that some incumbents were not contested could affect the Party in the main elections.

“Those kinds of machinations will definitely have an impact on the elections in general,” he said and added that: “it could portend to a lot of incumbents losing their seats in the major elections if care is not taken.”

Prof. Alidu assessed that the primaries will be “fiercely competitive” in the NPP’s stronghold constituencies due to the greater chances of the aspirant to secure a seat in Parliament.

He said the situation could be different in swing constituencies where the aspirants would have more work to do in the main elections.

“…what is more remarkable is that a lot of the incumbents have been there for several years and people might have issues with them; so, if people are fed up with incumbent MPs and the delegates still vote for them, it may have an impact on their general performance in the general elections,” he said.