The ruling New Patriotic Party held its extraordinary constituency delegates conference on Saturday, December 2, 2023, to elect parliamentary candidates in constituencies where the party does not have parliamentary representation.
The elections were conducted in 111 orphan constituencies across the 16 regions in the country except Ketu North, Akatsi North, Yilo Krobo, Jomoro, Fomena, and Bawku Central Constituencies.
While the elections were relatively free and fair, several media reports revealed a high level of monetization in the electoral process or what many described as incidence or evidence of vote buying in some constituencies across the country.
It is worrying to note that, in some constituencies, delegates were seen openly displaying the amount of money they received for participating in the parliamentary primaries. The situation was more distributive in constituencies such as Ablekuma Central in the Greater Accra Region and Ejura Sekyeredumase constituency in the Ashanti Region.
For instance, in the Ablekuma Central, one of the parliamentary aspirants, Collins Amoah justified the money he gave out to the various delegates and described it as a transportation allowance.
“They came to vote and once they are going back I need to give them their transport. We need to reward them in a very nice way. So giving them money in an envelope is a normal thing that everybody does in this country”.
Collins Amoah
Meanwhile, in the Ejura Sekyeredumase constituency in the Ashanti Region, delegates were reported to have chastised the various parliamentary aspirants for failing to pay them and even threatened not to participate in the elections if the various aspirants failed to honour their promises to them.
The opposition National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Jirapa in the Upper West Region, Cletus Seidu Dapilah criticized the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of excessively monetizing its parliamentary primaries.
The Jirapa Lawmaker alleged that some candidates in the New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary primaries paid delegates as much as 10,000 while others paid delegates in dollars.
“For me, what worries me is the monetisation of parliamentary primaries, particularly within the NPP. We don’t get to that level…Democracy is expensive, you can’t do it by spending money But the level at which we are doing it, particularly the NPP. In parliamentary primaries, you have some candidates paying as much as 10, 000 per delegate. Some say they are going to pay dollars. If you are to research about it, you will find that though both parties (NPP and NDC) engage in that, one (NPP) does it in the extreme”.
Cletus Seidu Dapilah
This is against the backdrop of a similar display of excessive level of election monetization during the party’s National Delegate Congress held on November 4 2023.
The Editor-in-Chief of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Junior alleged that the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia alone spent over GHS 100 million in the party’s Presidential Primaries on Saturday, November 4 2023 in the name of transportation allowances.
Even though, the Office of the Special Prosecutor has published pictures of some persons alleged to have been involved in the act of vote buying during the New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary primaries on Saturday, December 2, 2023, and declared them ‘wanted’ for corruption and corruption-related offences in respect of public elections particularly vote buying, it appears the act of vote buying and election monetization has virtually become part of the country’s political and governance processes.
Evidence both in the past and recent times from internal elections organized by the two leading political parties in the country, especially the governing New Patriotic Party affirms the infiltration of the worrying phenomena in the country’s political system.
What has even worsened the situation is the growing involvement of ordinary citizens in the phenomenon. It is important to emphasize that vote buying and the culture of excessive election monetization portends several dangers to the country’s fragile democracy.
While the phenomenon goes against the fundamental principles of the country’s democracy as it distorts the democratic process by substituting the will of the people with monetary incentives and erodes the legitimacy of election outcomes, it also fosters corruption within political parties as candidates who engage in or benefit from vote buying mostly prioritize the interests of those who financially supported them over the public’s interests.
It is therefore noteworthy that while the state ought to enforce the relevant laws and regulations that would eradicate this phenomenon, political parties in the country particularly the ruling New Patriotic Party must instil ethical culture among its members and candidates to mitigate the extreme danger of voting buying and election monetization to the country’s democracy.
READ ALSO: NPP To Elects Parliamentary Candidates In Orphan Constituencies Today
