Presidential Aspirants Must Contest MP Seats

Parliament as an important arm of State, according to an independent consultant on National Interest and Preventive Diplomacy, has not retained and attracted the ‘crème-dela-crime of astute politicians seeking to become President, and thus the need to reverse the trend for political parties’ flag-bearers to contest parliamentary seat simultaneously.

Mr. Akyaaba Addai-Sebo believes that the phenomenon will work for Ghana’s democracy where politicians vying for the highest office of the land would be groomed in governance at the parliamentary level, while their political expertise will also be retained in the governing system.

He told The New Crusading Guide newspaper in an interview yesterday to clarify his position on an article copied to the media that, party flag-bearers serving on parliamentary committees for instance, would provide an essential platform to effect change and advance the development and progress in some critical areas of national life.

“Presidential candidates and their running mates should avail themselves to run simultaneously for parliamentary seats as there is no constitutional barrier”, he underscored, adding that by-elections would therefore be conducted at constituencies where a presidential aspirant and running mate won as Members of Parliament (MP) as well as winning the national elections.

Mr. Addai-Sebo explained the rationale as retaining other unsuccessful presidential candidates who have also won their MP seats as leaders of a “responsible” opposition in Parliament to enrich debate and strengthen the quality of representative governance.

He said “national interest demands that key leaders of political parties must also be representative voices in Parliament”, referring to the country’s past political leaders such Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who worked in Parliament as leaders of government business, Dr. Abrefa Busia as District Commissioner (DC) and lastly Mr. J.A Kufuor who also started his political career as both an MP and Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly Head, indicating that, these political rudiments were recipe needed for the high office of a president.

However, pollster and Editor of the Daily Dispatch news paper, Mr. Ben Ephson in a brief reaction, discounted the assertion of party flag-bearers contesting as MPs as ‘premature’ that cannot stand the test of time, saying the fact that a flag bearer or running mate was elected by a political party does not give an indication for the same person to perform creditably as a parliamentarian.