One out of every 10 citizens offered bribe in 2020 general election

One out of every 10 Ghanaian citizens were offered bribe and other favours to influence their decision to vote during the 2020 general election, the 2021 Corruption Index Report has revealed.

The report was conducted and released by the United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in partnership with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).

The report indicated that 10.3 percent of the adult population in Ghana was offered money or other favour personally in exchange for their vote during the 2020 general election.

Again, 5.3 percent were specifically offered money while 5.1 percent were offered other goods or favours.

The report said 4.2 percent reported that although they were not personally offered anything, a member of their household was offered money or other favours in exchange for their vote.

The Oti Region recorded the highest prevalence of vote-buying with 24.2 percent followed by the Upper West Region with 23.4 percent and the Upper East Region with 17.9 percent, it revealed.

The report noted that the prevalence of vote buying was said to be common in rural areas than in urban areas across the country in which 6.6 percent were offered money and 7.1 percent were offered other favours in exchange for their votes in rural areas, while 4.3 percent were offered money and 3.6 percent offered other favours in exchange for their votes in urban areas.

The report said majority of the people who were offered bribe either had no formal education or had only primary education as 12.3 percent of these people who were offered bribe in exchange for their vote had no formal education while 11.7 percent had primary education.

It said 9.5 percent of the people who were offered bribe had secondary education while 8.2 percent had post-secondary education, non-tertiary education.

Also, 6.4 percent of people who were offered bribe in exchange for their vote had tertiary education, it added.

Meanwhile the report indicated that police officers were the most corrupt officials in the country with 53.2 percent, followed by the Immigration officers with 37.4 percent.

The report also indicated that a total of roughly GHS 5 billion was paid in cash bribes to public officials in 2021.