The Member of Parliament for Asawase in the Ashanti Region, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, has slammed the leadership of the National Democratic Congress for the minority leadership changes in Parliament.

Speaking on the minority leadership changes for the first time, the former Minority Chief Whip, who described the move as a coup, argued that the 17 incumbent MPs who lost their bid to represent the party in the 2024 elections could have been avoided if the previous leaders were still in office.

According to Muntaka, the loss of experience in the just-ended parliamentary elections will affect the minority caucus in the next Parliament.

“The truth is that in 2020, because the NPP had bridged camp, there was a lot of vigour, there was a lot of energy, naturally when you are going for primaries, NPP should be interested in some constituencies creating confusion so that they can have the chance to split your votes and take the constituency and there are examples like Akontombra and many others”.

“Now in 2023 NPP is struggling to find its feet, they are struggling to stay above waters, and then you go and lose 17 MPs. Who do you blame, it will be very unfair if you blame the current [Minority] leadership because the primaries were announced before the coup that happened in Parliament, [and that was] very unstrategic”.

“You can do any scientific research, and it would point to you that, the timing of that coup was absolutely wrong. It didn’t give the new leadership the opportunity to settle and strategise to save many more MPs.”

The Asawase MP also urged the newly-elected flagbearer of the NDC, John Mahama, to meet the MPs in smaller groups as part of plans to unite the party ahead of the 2024 elections.

He added that several MPs have become bitter towards the party arising from internal machinations.