Defeated MPs Shun Proceedings

Some of the twenty two (22) sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) who lost their candidacy in the recent National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary primaries have started boycotting proceedings.

This is in sharp contrast to the Majority Leader, Mr. Cletus Avoka’s earlier assertion that the loss of their seats would not have any effect on parliamentary proceedings. The Today newspaper can confirm that the affected MPs have become adamant to the normal business activities of the House and have left their official duties to the leadership alone.

Since losing their seats, the attendance of these defeated MPs to proceedings in the House have not been encouraging, lending credence to assertion in certain quarters that they will adopt a lack-lustre approach to their work in the remaining months of the life span of this parliament. According to sources, some of the defeated MPs showed up during proceedings last week, but obviously did not feel comfortable with the taunts that colleague MPs greeted them.

Some of these MPs could therefore not help but to loiter around the lobby and ante-rooms during proceedings on the floor of the House. That behaviour, which some observers have termed unparliamentaly and described detrimental to the state, is fast becoming pervasive, and some of these MPs take to the reading of newspapers outside the chamber, and sometimes in their cars