Amend your constitution to protect first-time MPs – NPP told

Political Science Lecturer at the Methodist University-Ghana Dr. Osei Bonsu has suggested to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to amend its constitution to help protect and retain first time Members of Parliament (MPs).

The modification, according to him, would help strengthen the party at the grassroots level and would also give enough time for the MPs to perform well at the constituency in enhancing the party’s chances to be retained in power for a longer period.

Dr. Osei Bonsu in his submission on Onua FM told host Nana Yaw Opare that the MPs should only be contested after two successive terms, by which time he believes they would have proved whether they deserve extended terms or not.

He underscored the revision of the constitution would likewise help curtail what has been described as vote-buying in the party, especially during their internal elections.

He has also counseled the party to expand and register all card-bearing members who would be qualified to vote in their primaries in electing the right people to represent them instead of giving the mandate to a few delegates.

Dr. Osei Bonsu asserted some parliamentary aspirants two months to the recently held primaries were allowed to register new members at the party’s offices as delegates so that they could vote for them without considering the damning consequences.

To avoid the issue of vote buying, the Political Scientist recommended to the ruling party to compile a list of all card-bearing members in all the constituencies to qualify them to vote for the best and popular candidates to represent the people and the party.

In that case, he believes it would be very difficult for Parliamentary aspirants to bribe these large numbers of delegates in voting for them in primaries using the Bantama Constituency in the Ashanti Region as a case study.

Dr. Osei Bonsu thus recommended to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo and the NPP campaign team to exclude MPs especially the newly elected aspirants from the campaign team and rather compel them to go to their various constituencies to campaign effectively to help the party retain power in December 7 polls.