NPP primaries was just an auction – Kofi Akpaloo

Founder of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) Kofi Akpaloo, has raised concern about the monetisation that characterised the recent parliamentary primaries held by the New Patriotic Party.

Contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM on Friday, February 2, 2023, with panellists including NPP National Organiser, Henry Nana Boakye, Mr Akpaloo described the NPP primaries as an auction where money was the order of the day.

“Your election was just an auction,” he exclaimed.

The NPP on Saturday, January 27, 2024, held primaries to elect candidates for the December 7 general elections.

The election saw some 28 sitting MPs losing their re-election bid.

There were reports of monetary inducement of delegates in several constituencies.

Incumbent member of parliament for Asante Akim-North, Andy Kwame Appiah-Kubi following the election expressed displeasure at the monetization which has characterized the country's politics in recent times.

Speaking to the press after the primaries, lawyer Appiah-Kubi decried the manner in which some aspirants pumped so much many into the recent elections, thus making politics unattractive.

Whiles warning that he might opt out of such primaries in the near future, the NPP MP opined that contesting for an election should not be an "open" one.

"If the monetization is not stopped, I am not going to stand as a Member of Parliament again... Parliamentary race should not be an open contest noting that competent persons with professions should rather be voted into Ghana’s Parliament," he said.

"Most of our people are losing because they didn’t have the capacity and the financial resources to contest. Some of us have come through because of our professional earnings.

"We cannot continue to earn money in our professions and come and dump them into politics and even attract the insults; the undermining and the name calling," he added.

The lawmaker added that if the modus operandi in selecting MPs is not checked, Ghana’s parliament will be filled with very incompetent MPs.

"I am serving this note that if we don’t change our ways of selection, I will not be a candidate next time. We need to select people who have the capacity, the competence, the interest and the energy to go into Parliament. We don’t have to pick anybody to go into Parliament," he fumed.

GA/SARA

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