Party primaries promote corruption – Majority Leader

• Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has asserted that the structure of internal elections in the various political parties encourage corruption.

The Suame lawmaker said the phenomenon where candidates dole out money to delegates who have “constituted themselves into a cabal” in the name of transport fares is dangerous and threatens the country’s democracy.

“We all know we are sowing the seed of corruption at the base level of our parties. You reap what you sow,” Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu stated.

Speaking at a parliamentary leadership meeting with journalists in Accra yesterday, the outgoing seven-term MP said the parties must find a way to conduct their primaries to reduce the level of monetisation of the process.

His observation comes on the back of allegation of vote buying which has characterised parliamentary primaries; the latest being the NPP’s January 27 primaries where 28 sitting MPs lost their bids to return to Parliament in 2025.

Per Ghanaian culture, the Majority Leader said it was okay for candidates to reach out to delegates by way of transport fare to appreciate their coming when invited but if that appreciation goes beyond GH¢500, that should raise eyebrows.

“I am not too sure there is any place in this country where from the (delegates) place of residence to the constituency centre where elections would be held, the amount will be GH¢500. I am not too sure of that but with what we are hearing, there is something wrong and we must all attend to that,” he stated.

According to him, nobody will spend such huge money and not expect to recoup what he may have spent during campaign when voted into office.

“If you squeeze (the candidate and extort money from him) and the person gets elected and he or she is fortunate his party wins and he or she is made a minister or deputy minister, what happens? He will make the money he had lost (in the course of his campaign). Let us not pretend we don’t know what is going on,” he stressed.

In his words “if we want to entrench our democracy, where we are going is dangerous. From what we are seeing today, I cannot imagine what will happen two, three elections from now.”

He alleged that the leadership of the parties have started demanding cars to even pave the way for prospective candidates to even contest, a development he said was “dangerous.”

Meanwhile, the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson has urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to reform his governance style to instill confidence in the democratic process.

In his view, Ghanaians were fast losing hope in the country’s democracy; something he said must not be allowed to fester.

“Our country is not sitting well in some of the things we do. As parliament has reformed itself through the introduction of the new Standing Orders, so we also call on the government to also reform,” the Ajumako/Enyan/Esiam MP said.

He said imperfect as democracy may be, Parliament was committed to jealously guarding it and other arms of government must do same.

“This democracy is most enduring and has prospered Ghana. It has its own weakness and we are working to perfect it,” he said.

BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI