Being an MP a thankless job – Assibey-Yeboah concedes defeat
The New Juaben South Constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has rejected incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah.
Instead, the party voted massively for the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Free Zones Board.
Mr Baafi had 372 votes representing 64.70 percent while Dr Assibey had 200 votes representing 34.78 percent.
Dr Assibey-Yeboah, was an unfazed by the defeat told Citi TV that he had accepted the outcome of the polls.
“The truth of the matter is that, this job that we do is thankless and the more you sacrifice, the more people do not appreciate so in truth we don’t have longevity in parliament,” he said. “If you put yourself up to represent the people and the people decide they don’t want you to represent the constituency again then so be it”.
He said every supporter and member of the party in the constituency must support Mr Berko just as the new candidate supported “four years ago when he lost to me”.
For him, the contest was “an internal fight, the best person won and we should rally around him” ahead of the 2020 poll.
He noted that after one or two terms MPs are not able to satisfy their constituents and the delegates prefer new faces.
“I am not surprised that most of my colleagues (in parliament) are losing” he observed.
Ahead of the contest, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) made efforts to protect some incumbent members, especially in the Ashanti Region.
However, Mr Assibey-Yeboah was of the view that protection is not necessary.
‘ I don’t believe in protection” he said even though he serves as the Chairman of the Finance Committee in Parliament and a member of the Economic Management Team (EMT) of government.
According to him, if the party protected him, the winner of the primary, who is “now the darling boy of the constituency” would not also get the chance to contest for parliament.
For him, it was important that the voices of the party members are adhered to, hence he had accepted the results in good faith.