NPP Member of Parliament for Abirem, Esther Obeng Dapaah, has suggested that all six sitting female legislators who lost in last Saturday’s parliamentary primaries were victims of the Party’s earlier announced affirmative action policy of not allowing female MPs to be contested by their colleague males.
According to her, their political opponents used their stance on the policy to campaign massively against the female MPs.
“What cost us dearly is the affirmative action policy that became controversial. In my case for instance, my opponent told the delegates that I was the originator of the affirmative action policy and also the one who signed it because I am the NPP Women Caucus leader so when that law is made to stand, the Abirem seat will be a no go area for any man.”
“Most of the delegates are men and such pronouncement scared them. So, that is one of the major reasons why I lost the primaries,” she told Kasapafmonline.com in an interview.
In March, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NPP announced the Affirmative Action policy to prevent males from contesting sitting female MPs in sixteen constituencies.
But the policy suffered a setback as majority of the members of the elephant family objected to its implementation leading to its suspension until further notice.
Madam Dapaah who is also a member of the Judiciary Committee of Parliament bemoaned their loss and argued that such was going to have a negative impact on the elephant family.
“Our loss is going to affect the party a lot but I take the delight that so many women won and would be competing in the 2016 Parliamentary election.”
Esther Obeng Dapaah polled 125 of the total valid votes cast while Mr. John Frimpong Osei obtained 230 votes to win the mandate of the delegates.
By: Kasapafmonline.com/Ghana
