“Parliamentary seats are not hereditary for contestants to stay glued to it all their lives since we live in a democratic country. Members of Parliament (MPs) will surely lose the opportunity to represent their parties or contestants with new faces to take over,” he noted.

Speaking against vote-buying, rigging and intimidation in the election of candidates during presidential and parliamentary primaries of political parties, Mr Abass maintained that “delegates must always be allowed to elect candidates they prefer to represent them in an election to avoid allegations of vote-buying, rigging and intimidation”. 

He also reacted to the defeat of nine sitting MPs in the just ended National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary primaries including Yieleh Chireh, who lost his bid to represent the party at Wa West to Police Superintendent [rtd] Peter Tuubo, a former Executive Secretary to former Inspector General of Police David Asante-Apeatu polled 755 votes as against 317 garnered by the veteran politician and former minister.

Mr Abass observed that it should not be surprising since in every democratic state, citizens would either win or lose elections because the electorate or delegates are the ones who elect contestants to represent them and when they are fed up with you, they would show them the exit.

‘’This is not a negative activity but it is rather a victory for democracy, what politicians should understand is that when they are elected, they should represent the interest of the citizenry or risk losing their seats when the electorate find another capable person, that is the beauty of presidential and parliamentary democratic dispensation must always include the exit of long serving MPs for new faces to surface.

‘’Parliament is a place of continuation and some may come and others may also go, that is what makes it strong, if we keep the old faces in parliament for too long, it makes their ideas and energies static, we must encourage new faces to always enter the House,’’ Mr Abass posited.