First deputy speaker in Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu, asserts that Members of Parliament (MPs) shoulder a significant portion of the challenges in their communities.

This assertion comes in light of the recent parliamentary primaries of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), where 28 MPs lost their seats to Chief Executives of state institutions and other contenders.

Among the 28 sitting MPs who lost their seats, 10 are first-time MPs, while 18 have served more than one term in the House.

In an interview with EIB Network Parliamentary correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan, the Bekwei lawmaker expressed the hope that MPs who have lost in the parliamentary primaries would continue to actively participate in Parliament and respond to the needs of their constituencies.

“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.”