Almost all community issues are handled by Members of Parliament (MPs), according to Joseph Osei Owusu, the first deputy speaker of parliament.
This is in response to the fact that, among other people, chief executives of state institutions defeated 28 members of parliament in the recently concluded New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primaries.
Ten of the 28 incumbent Members of Parliament who lost are first-timers, while 18 have served several terms in the House.
The Bekwei politician expressed optimism that MPs who lost parliamentary primaries will follow the whip and attend more often in Parliament in an interview with Ibrahim Alhassan, the EIB Network Parliamentary Correspondent.
“For sitting MPs they are disadvantaged because as soon as you become an MP you will pay till the next election period. Whereas for the other person who is coming he may have saved and deepened his pocket all the more. If you are sitting MP you are disadvantaged
“Parliament is a poor place. You spend all the money, you are community ATM, you are the financier for all party activity. You are the social burden, you carry all the social burdens of the community so you can’t save anything,” Mr. Owusu narrated.
He continued: “Your emoluments is for the whole community so you are distressed from the beginning till the time of the primaries. Many of my colleagues who lost actually took loans to contest and they’ve lost. Some mortgage their properties. It is common knowledge that within one year when they leave Parliament they can’t pay hospital bills. That is why Parliament has made it a condition to support former Members of Parliament.”
