Dr Alidu Seidu, a political scientist, has cautioned that the growing practice of replacing deceased MPs with either their wives or other relatives pose a great danger to the life of sitting MPs.

“If you are not careful wives of MPs who are not in good relations with their husbands could be mischievous about this. Sometimes in the highest level of evil, the spouse could hire an assassin to deal with the other person and so he/she will automatically become the candidate and lead in the particular constituency,” Dr Seidu told Joy News.

Dr Seidu’s comments follow the decision by the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) to settle on Ophelia Hayford as the parliamentary candidate for Mfantseman to succeed her murdered husband Ekow Quansah Hayford.

Dr Seidu observed that political parties usually use such a process to get sympathy votes from the public, but cautioned that skills and competence should be the criteria for selecting a successor to a deceased MP.

“If you look at Shai Osudoku, the same thing happened, [the NDC] selected the wife and she won the seat. It also happened in Ayawaso West Wuogon, the [NPP] selected his wife and she also won the seat. Skills and competence [are] not transferable and you can’t inherit them,” Dr Alidu Seidu stated.