There is a call on government and political parties to put measures and laws in place to curb the phenomenon of vote-buying in the country.
A Research Analyst with the Ghana Center for Democratic Development, CDD-Ghana, Mr Gilfred Boateng Asiamah who made the call blames this growing trend on the absence of implementation of laws, the competitiveness of Ghana’s elections and politicians creating the enabling grounds for the act during preparations towards elections.
This situation, according to Mr Asiamah undermines the integrity of Ghana’s elections and democratic governance.
Speaking in an interview on the Atlantic wave yesterday he explained that because elections are to endorse leaders who can advocate for the development of a people, making it a “contest of money” means downplaying the development of the country.
“It also undermines the legitimacy of political leadership because the leader came through a flawed process. So, people will not see that person as a true leader because the person bought the process and emerged as a winner. This has serious implications for our democratic governance”, he added.
The Research Analyst cautioned that if the necessary measures are not put in place, “it will be very difficult for us to organize a very healthy election in this country”.
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To this end, CDD-Ghana has proposed to political parties to also expand the electoral colleges to reduce vote-buying in the country.
“We have the political parties who don’t seem to have a clear provision in their constitution that seems to punish this incidence of vote-buying as an offence. These political parties could go ahead and reform their constitution to make provision to deter people to buy votes” he said.
Mr Asiamah is hopeful that having a law in place at the national level or implementing some of the laws we have will also be very helpful.
But Dr Kwabena Sarfo Sarfo Kantanka of the Department of English at the University of Cape Coast believes Ghana’s democracy has a bleak future if the government fails to resource concerned agencies like the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).
According to him, the monetary undertone given elections in this country will prevent some very qualified persons from aspiring for political positions.
“Today, politics is left in the hands of businesspeople because it is very difficult for you to become an intellectual. You may study at the PhD level or become a professor once you intend to contest for a position, you will be forced into paying people to be elected. No matter how brilliant your ideas are if you are not paying you are not going to be elected. What is happening is that we are driving away intellectuals from politics and that could be dangerous”, he bemoaned.
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Source: Aba Aikins Appah / ATLFMNEWS
