Vote Buying In National Elections

NEWS COMMENTARY ON THE NEED TO DEAL WITH VOTE BUYING IN ELECTIONS

Many people were delighted at the recent peaceful parliamentary primaries organized by the NDC throughout the country. The feat chalked-up by the party is likely to be emulated by the other political parties that are yet to organize their primaries. In spite of the happy turn of events, a few polling stations recorded skirmishes leading to fisticuffs and the destruction of ballot papers at a polling station. This is uncalled-for. It’s believed that the party has taken note of the happenings and would put right what went wrong. A few of the candidates who lost the polls accused the winners of vote buying.

One such person is Ras Mubarak, the incumbent MP for Kumbungu who lost the primary to a lecturer. Ras Mubarak was so bitter with the result that he allegedly lodged a complaint of what he considered to be vote buying with the BNI. According to reports, he expects them to investigate the result of the poll in Kumbungu. But even though, he has lodged his complaint it’s up to the BNI to go into the merit and demerit of the case. Even before the matter is determined many people are sad that vote buying which has unfortunately become part of our body politic is refusing to go away and may be rearing its ugly head again during the elections in 2020.

What adds to the suspicion of vote buying during the polls is when one of the candidates Lawyer Xavier Sosu revealed that he spent as much as 300, thousand Ghana Cedis on his way to winning the polls to become the NDC Candidate for Madina. According to him he did not spend the cash on the spot but over a period of time on transportation and other essential items for the members of the party. Having spent this much during the primaries one wonders how much more the candidate and others like him are going to spend from now till December 2020 during the presidential and parliament elections. This practice, observers believe lends itself to corruption as candidates who win elections are likely to look for loopholes while in office to recoup their investments through fair or foul means.

However, those who will not receive the blessings of the electorate will be running into serious debt. With regard to the lamentations of the famous Actor, John Dumelo, the least said about it the better. He was reported to have indicated that he was broke after fighting to become the NDC candidate for Ayawaso West Wougon. Mr. Dumelo should realise that what happened during the primaries was just the beginning. He has a more difficult battle to fight in his efforts to beat other candidates in the 2020 election. He must lace his boots to march on. It is important for the NDC and other political parties to study the vote buying trend and devise ways to address the menace.

The huge expenditure by candidates must seriously be looked at again, and steps taken to make the processes of elections less expensive for competent but less endowed citizens to participate. Political parties should fashion out ways of levying party members to finance their campaigns. This would save party sympathizers and their candidates from vote buying and associated huge expenditure. Meanwhile, the statement made by Ashanti regional Chairman of the NPP referred to as Chairman Wontumi that he had a hand in the NDC Parliamentary primaries is not right and must be condemned.

If what he said is true it is an example of interference of a political party in the affairs of other parties. The act is bad and must not be tolerated. Let us all endeavor to make partisan politics clean, less expensive and all-inclusive. In so doing we will be galvanising the potential of all citizens towards national development.

BY ALHAJI ALHASSAN ABDULAI, A JOURNALIST AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF EANFOWORLD.