NPP learnt bitter lessons in protecting sitting MPs in 2020 election – Ben Ephson

Pollster and manager editor for the Insight Newspaper, Ben Ephson says the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has learnt bitter lessons in protecting the sitting lawmakers in the 2020 election.

This comes on the back of 19 NPP members of Parliament who have decided not to return to Parliament, 28 others have lost the just-ended primaries.

Out of 28 sitting MPs that lost 10 of them are first-timers and 18 are more than one term in the House.

Speaking on Morning Starr with Francis Abban, the pollster stated that protecting the sitting Members of Parliament in the 2020 primaries affected the party in the general election.

“I think the NPP as a party has learnt a bitter lesson from 2020, in 2020 they attempt to save some of the experienced and incumbent MPs. They disqualified some of the candidates even before the elections took place and that had a dire impact on their chances.

“If you analyze the parliamentary and the presidential elections you could see that there was anger in the supporters. The votes President Akufo-Addo got as presidential candidate were far less than the votes of the parliamentary candidates. Which tells you that the supporters registered their displeasure by not voting for the candidate,” Mr. Ephson stated.

He continued: “So now you will see that this year, the party virtually cleared everybody, in 2020 they learnt lessons from the way the supporters voted in the parliamentary.”