Electorate urged to ignore "puppet" politicians

Accra, July 29, GNA - Professor Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi, Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), has said that much as flagrant use of money in politics was unacceptable, the electorate also deserved better than "puppets" putting themselves up to be elected as leaders of the country.

"Those who put themselves up to solicit our votes should themselves have evidence of some level of financial independence and proven ability to make and manage financial and other resources on their own," he said. Prof. Gyimah-Boadi told journalists attending a day's seminar on policy literacy and issue-based reporting in an election year that it was important for the media to throw the spotlight and frown on both abusive political spending and also on "puppets" who solicited for high public office.

"Vying for leadership position takes more that just brilliant ideas. It also takes money and one's own ability to mobilize resources to convince the electorate that that person can lead them out of their own poverty.

"Politics is all about mandating people to make your life better. If you come for my vote and you have not shown me how you yourself can make your own life better, how do you expect me to trust that if I follow you my life will change for the better," he asked.

He noted that vote buying and the attempt to influence the judgement of the electorate with money was much of a sin as putting oneself up for election into the highest office in the land without any evidence of one's own capacity to provide sufficiently for oneself.

"A politician with a proven record and existing evidence of financial freedom is more likely to engender confidence of the electorate than the puppet politician," he said.

Prof. Gyimah-Boadi said the concern for journalists and the electorate should not be how much money a political party spent during an election, but rather the sources of those funds.

"The fact is if a politician has enough money to put up an expensive campaign without directly influencing people with money there is nothing wrong with it, except there is proof that the source of that money is not right," he said.

Dr. Peter Quartey, Deputy Director of the University of Ghana Centre for Migration Studies, said extreme political spending made it difficult for persons who were financially independent but not necessarily affluent to compete fairly.

"Both extremes of flagrant political spending and puppets putting themselves up to be elected are not good, but for people like myself who are in the middle, with the ideas and some level of financial independence, we still do not have the wherewithal to compete with extreme spending," he said.

He therefore called for caution in extreme political spending to enable financially independent but not necessarily affluent people with ideas to participate in the electoral process.

Dr. Audrey Gadzekpo, Director of University of Ghana School of Communications, said democracy required that every political party was given a fair chance, but the media needed to paint a picture for the electorate to be able to discern between politicians who were worth listening to and those who were not.

"The fact that someone forms a political party does not mean we should give him the same platform as other politicians with proven record in their own lives, their communities and public lives," she said. 29 July 08