The Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor Kwasi Prempeh, has asserted that the electorate hold a solution to the monetisation of politics in the country.
“This I believe can be done through a resolve of electorate to vote out politicians culpable of vote-buying and the only way to stop it is for us to get them both to know that this is not the way to go,” he said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of CDD’s Manifesto Project in Kumasi, Prof. Prempeh noted that “we must make them sign to it that we will vote for the candidate that do not accept bribes or pay for the primaries.”
His comment follows vote-buying allegations against the Deputy Chief Executive of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC).
Hajia Abibata Zakaria was cited in CDD’s Corruption Watch arm investigation to have used the centre’s funds to induce New Patriotic Party (NPP) delegates to vote for her in the recently held parliamentary primaries and across the political divide, financial and materials influence of voters has become recurrent, though alleged culprits continue to deny such allegations.
Prof. Prempeh observed that besides fuelling corruption, vote-buying deprived the citizenry of good quality leaders and pointed out that “it is part of governance issues inhibiting growth and development, despite success in free, fair, credible, transparent and peaceful elections and power transfer for nearly three decades.
“We are doing some of the democratic issues right but the outcome is still not impressive, if we don’t conduct governance right we risk losing some of the gains made so far and 10 areas of interest have been highlighted in a document dubbed manifesto project, aimed at promoting responsive and responsible manifesto towards growth and development which include governance, education and agriculture among key areas of high interest,” he stressed. -myjoyonline.com
