NPP lost several seats because of suppression during primaries – Kennedy Agyapong

Member of Parliament for Assin Central Kennedy Agyapong has said that the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) lost several seats in parliament during the December 7 elections because delegates of the party were suppressed from electing their preferred candidates during the internal primaries.

He revealed that there was too much inference during the party’s primaries to elect the parliamentary candidates.

Mr Agyapong noted that some regional chairmen of the party forced their preferred candidates on the people, a situation he believed resulted in apathy in the parliamentary elections.

Prior to the 2020 elections, the NPP controlled 169 seats in parliament.

The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the other hand had 106.

After the elections however, official results from the elections management by, the Electoral Commission indicate that the NPP now controls 137 seats as against the NDC’s 136 with one independent and an outstanding constituency.

Assessing the performance of the NPP in the elections on Net 2, Mr Agyapong said “The suppression during the NPP’s parliamentary primaries was too much.

“Henceforth there should be no interference in the elections of parliamentary candidates."

“Let us allow who the people want to represent them on the ticket of the NPP. At a point regional chairmen were choosing who should be a parliamentary candidate. That is very bad,” he lamented.