By Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Majority Leader in Parliament, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, didn’t mince words when he took certain political party executives to the cleaners for making extravagant demands, including requests for cars and land, as prerequisites for allowing party members to contest in Parliamentary primaries.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu also condemned ‘vote buying’, which has become a concern for many political watchers, emphasizing the need to address this issue in the country’s electoral process.
Speaking during a leadership engagement with the Parliamentary Press Corps (PPC) on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, the Majority Leader and Member of Parliament for Suame Constituency in the Ashanti region stated, “You have people coming to you to tell you that buy a car for us before we vote for you.
Especially the parties’ leadership, they ask for cars before they allow you to contest, even land…we should be real.” He cried.
The Suame lawmaker also proposed that political parties reconsider such practices, suggesting introspection to possibly eliminate these demands.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu highlighted the need for a shift towards a system resembling established democracies or expanding voting rights to all card-bearing party members.
“My own proposition is that the parties should introspect and perhaps scrap this thing as it is in established democracies…If we want to continue to live with this communist arrangement then, we will perhaps have to go further downstream to enable every card-bearing member of the party to vote.” He noted.
Additionally, the Suame MP cautioned against apathy among MPs who did not secure victory in their Parliamentary primaries, emphasizing the importance of continued engagement in parliamentary business.
