By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
A Fellow at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Dr John Osae-Kwapong, has revealed that incidents of vote-buying and vote-influencing remain deeply embedded in Ghana’s internal party politics.
According to him, money continues to shape outcomes in party primaries, and that reality is unlikely to change anytime soon.
His comments come as major political parties like the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) prepare for another round of internal contests ahead of future national elections, amid renewed scrutiny of campaign financing, vote buying, and the credibility of internal democratic processes.
Speaking on Joy News’ current affairs program, “PM Express”, Dr Osae-Kwapong, noted that Ghanaians continue to “see or read or hear stories” about vote-buying and vote-influencing, the same practices during party contests, often framed as support for transportation or logistics.
Be it support for transportation or logistics, the effect is the same: vote-buying and vote-influencing,” he reiterated
According to Dr Osae-Kwapong, he does not expect that dynamic (vote-buying and vote-influencing) to change anytime soon, especially in internal party elections, despite growing public concern about the influence of money.
“I don’t think that dynamic of electoral politics, especially when it comes to internal party politics, would change,” he retorted.
The CDD-Ghana Fellow said he supports the Constitutional Review Committee’s (CRC) recommendations to reform how parties conduct their primaries.
Dr Osae-Kwapong explained that one proposal from the CRC, worth serious consideration, is opening up internal party elections to all registered members in good standing, rather than restricting voting to a small group of delegates.
“I have advocated, and I support the recommendation from the constitutional review committee that when it comes to internal party elections, if you are a registered member of the political party in good standing, you should be allowed to participate in party primaries,” he said.
Dr Osae-Kwapong, however, expressed doubt about whether political parties would be willing to adopt such reforms.
The CDD-Ghana Fellow insisted that limiting party primaries to delegates makes it easier for candidates with deep pockets to influence election outcomes.
“If our concern is that a candidate can easily quote and unquote, buy several delegates, then to make it harder to do that, if you have an open primary, it is more difficult to quote and unquote by an entire constituency, or majority of delegates, he said.
