Political parties and candidates have been making claims and counter-claims of offering incentives to induce votes in recent bye-elections.
National Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress, George Opare Addo, is asking the media and other institutions to monitor and call out perpetrators.
He also encouraged voters to be discerning and resist the temptation of receiving gifts from politicians.
The issue of vote buying is a growing canker in Ghana’s electoral system. Reports and observations of the practice surfaced in the recent Assin North and Kumawu bye-elections.
Some voters allegedly received direct cash payments, goods or services, or development projects in exchange for votes.
The National Youth Organizer of the opposition NDC, George Opare Addo, speaking at the maiden national conference of the NDC Professionals Forum, indicated that the media, and other institutions play a role in bringing perpetrators of vote buying to book.
“Vote buying is an offense against our electoral laws. The media should be able to call them out and report them to the appropriate authorities. I’ve seen people who have come out to say that they were given 200 Cedis and 300 Cedis.
“We expect the media and institutions to call people out when they do so. In 2024, we expect the electorate to be discerning enough not to fall for such gimmicks. Because immediately the person offers you money, he has bought your consent. And so he owes you no development. It is money for the development of the community that they bring around to buy votes. Any government that performs and provides wages of the people will not turn around during elections to buy votes,” he said.
The conference of the NDC Young Professionals Forum (YPF) assembled members of the party across the country under the theme, “The Youth Factor in Ghanaian Politics”.
The conference is aimed at developing the young wing of the party towards the 2024 general election.
National Coordinator for NDC Young Professionals Forum, Chris Dela Ahinabu, debunked claims that the party lacks expertise to collate electoral figures.
“I think it’s a misguided comment because we have collated our results, we know our figures, but we are not mandated as a party to declare a result. EC is the only body mandated by the state to declare a result and we were pushing them to come and tell us what their figures were because they declared six different results.
“They have that mandate to declare results. Yet they kept on changing figures. We were waiting for them. That should tell you that the NDC has the brains to be able to collate our results. When someone says we don’t collate results, I think it’s just a total lie,” he said.
The NDC Young Professionals Forum has become a vehicle for nurturing and grooming the young and vibrant youth wing of the party towards electoral victory.