Legal practitioner Lamtiig Apanga has argued that it is inappropriate for spouses to automatically take over parliamentary seats following the death of a sitting Member of Parliament.
According to him, while voters and party members are entitled to support any candidate of their choosing, including widows or widowers of deceased MPs, the practice raises broader concerns about political influence and merit.
Speaking on Channel One TV as monitored by NewsDesksGH on February 10, Lawyer Apanga said he does not fault those who choose to back a widow out of preference, stressing that democratic decisions must be respected.
“I don’t even fault the majority if they decided to support the widow, it is their choice. As far as the elections are over, if your candidate did not win, find ways to patch up.”
However, he maintained that the broader concept of spousal succession in Parliament is problematic.
“I don’t think that whole idea of a spouse taking over from a former MP is appropriate.”
Lawyer Apanga explained that many spouses of MPs may not have the political background, experience, or ambition required for parliamentary work.
“Some spouses are not involved in politics. Even if they are, not to the extent that they have ambitions to become members of parliament.”
He further suggested that political parties sometimes deliberately promote spouses of deceased MPs to capitalise on public sympathy.
According to him, sometimes the party may make arrangement to push the spouse of an MP in the event of their death because of the advantage of sympathy votes.
His comments come in the wake of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary primary held in the Ayawaso East constituency on Saturday, February 7, 2026, following the death of the sitting Member of Parliament, Mahama Naser Toure.
The late MP’s widow, Hajia Amina Adam, contested the primary and was widely considered the frontrunner based on several pre-election projections. However, she narrowly lost the contest after securing 399 votes, representing about 41% of the total valid votes cast, falling 32 votes short of victory.
The primary was conducted to select an NDC candidate for the parliamentary by-election scheduled for March 3, 2026.
