The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has set up a committee to probe the loss of parliamentary seats in the December 7 elections.

The Committee, as part of its mandate, is expected to evaluate the circumstances that led to the unexpected results, per its estimation, in the parliamentary elections.

At least 33 incumbent NPP MPs lost their seats in the just-ended elections with about 21 of them being either ministers of state or deputy ministers. Aside from the 33 MPs who lost their seats, a total of 41 incumbent MPs lost the NPP primaries earlier this year and thus did not contest in the polls out of which four are retiring.

In total, the governing party will lose at least 78 legislators out of their 169 in the next Parliament. That means about 50% of all NPP MPs are not returning. Chairman of the Committee, Yaw Osafo-Maafo has said the committee has established that some Municipal Chief Executives (MCE) and District Chief Executives (DCE) contributed to the unfortunate outcome of the results.

The Senior Minister told JoyNews that some DCEs and MCEs worked to undermine certain parliamentary candidates’ electoral fortunes in the just-ended polls. “So far we realized that there are a lot of internal fishers, there are a lot of District Chief Executives, Municipal Chief Executives were undermining parliamentary candidate, and they were even campaigning against them.”

He stated that “we have been able to identify some of them” but was not willing to disclose the specific number until the investigation is completed. Mr Maafo further indicated that those who will be found culpable will be dismissed.

“They would definitely have to be thrown out, definitely, any DCE or MCE who considered it right to work against a parliamentary candidate has no business to represent the party in the district.” Although the constitution of the NPP does not indicate any sanction to individuals who may work against the party, Mr Osafo-Maafo maintains the same will not apply to the issue at hand.

“You are dealing with the same party so if you are a DCE or MCE and your campaign against your parliamentary candidate, you have no business to be a DCE or MCE for the party.” He stressed: This is “because the candidate is a candidate for the party and you are a DCE or MCE for the party so if you undermine your parliamentary candidate, you have no business to be the District Chief Executives.”

Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo disclosed this after the party’s thanksgiving service held at the forecourt of the State House on Sunday in Accra.