The Member of Parliament for the Tamale South Constituency in the Northern Region and Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, has been ranked as the most visible Member of Parliament in Ghana’s MPs Media Visibility Ratings in the first quarter of 2017.

Haruna Iddrisu scored 31 units of news stories projection out of the total 298 units recorded by all the MPs making him the most visibility MP in the first quarter of 2017.

This was contained in research findings by Ghana's leading media research organisation, Center for Media Analysis (CMA) in its Ghana's MPs Media Visibility Coverage Index (Ghana-MPs-MVCI) for the first quarter of 2017, (Q1-2017).

Ghana's MPs Media Visibility Coverage Index (Ghana-MPs-MVCI) is a scientific research tool used to track and analyse MPs coverage or visibility in the Ghanaian media and how this can intrinsically impact on their political carrier and the performance of their various political parties at large.

The report also revealed that, Samuel 0kudzeto Ablakwah, Member of Parliament for the North Tongu Constituency in the Volta Region, emerged second with 30 units whilst A first timer and Member of Parliament for the Tamale North Constituency, Alhaji Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini and Member of Parliament for Asawase, Muntaka Mubarak came 3rd in the index with of 20 units each.

According to the report, the visibility of Haruna Iddrisu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Alhaji Alhassan Suhuyini and Muntaka Mubarak was largely in relation to their Vetting Committee activities in the parliament in the first quarter of 2017.

The report also says that, female MPs, in addition to their small number of representation in the house performed poorly in terms of Media visibility during the first quarter. According to the report, only 7 out of 36 female MPs in the house appeared in the media.

Commenting on the research report, Chief Media Analyst and Executive Director of CMA, Dr. Messan Mawugbe, said though MPs are popular in the country, what is published about them and their regular presence in the media directly impact on their relationship with the constituents, their political carrier in general, the government and the party they serve.

He emphasised the need for MPs to adopt effective media strategies to promote their media relations, visibility, their political brand - personalities and attributes.

The Centre for Media Analysis (CMA) is an independent media research organization that aggregates information gathered by traditional, social media, citizen-journalists and content providers to meet the strategic public - communication objectives of its clients.