‘Say No To Vote Buying’ campaign initiated

A group of concerned Ghanaians have initiated an advocacy project aimed at getting Ghanaians to shun politicians who attempt to buy their votes ahead of the December 7 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

The campaign dubbed ‘SAY NO TO VOTE BUYING’ is the group’s contribution towards fighting corruption in our society.

As part of the advocacy tool, the group has produced a 4-minute video that it expects to go viral to educate members about the negative impact of vote selling.

Ghanaians on December 7, 2020, will go to the polls to elect members of Parliament and a President to steer the affairs of the country for the next four years.

Ahead of that exercise, concerns have been raised about the phenomenon of vote buying creeping into our political contests.

Recently, Corruption Watch, an initiative of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), sounded the alarm about how pervasive this phenomenon has become in Ghana.

CDD Ghana’s latest report called out a number of members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who attempted to bribe their way to victory by enticing delegates with cash and other goodies during the party’s parliamentary primaries.

In a statement, the leader of this group of concerned Ghanaians, Magdalene Eyram Kwashie, noted that “Ghana has over the years been deprived of quality leaders because our politics has been mortgaged to persons with deep pockets”.

She noted that the practice has gradually become a phenomenon with its attendant negative impact of depriving the country of accelerated development.

According to her, vote buying is promoting corruption in the country especially in our political space.

“A number of political actors seeking political office, buy their way through to office, and then tend to recoup their investments through corrupt deals that deprive the nation of the necessary infrastructure investments especially those living in rural communities,” she said.

She noted that the poverty levels in the rural areas has made inhabitants susceptible to accepting cash and other items to vote for politicians, adding that “these corrupt practices tend to worsen the poverty levels of the voters especially those in rural communities. Therefore, there is the need to stop the phenomenon before it gets out of hand”.

Ms. Kwashie explained that “over the years, we have only confined the subject of vote buying to lip service and this is gradually eating away our society’s moral principles. Now is the time to move the talk to another level with such an advocacy video that brings home the real situation confronting the country”.

A social media hashtag #SayNoToVoteBuying has been created to raise awareness among the Ghanaian populace.