Policy analyst, Michael Kosi Dedey, has criticised plans by Alban Bagbin to introduce a Private Member’s Bill aimed at criminalising vote-buying and other illegal practices associated with party primaries and by-elections, describing the proposal as an “exercise in futility.”
Speaking on Channel One TV’s Breakfast Daily on March 11, Kosi Dedey argued that the country already has sufficient laws to deal with such offences, stressing that the real problem lies in the unwillingness of political actors to enforce existing regulations.
“Without mincing words, I would say it is an exercise in futility. Over the last 30 years of practising the Fourth Republic, we have seen contestants in primaries engage in various forms of inducement for delegates, yet little has been done about it,” he stated.
According to him, the widely discussed alleged vote-buying case involving Baba Jamal is only a small example of a broader problem that has persisted within internal party contests for years.
Kosi Dedey maintained that introducing new legislation would not resolve the problem unless political parties demonstrate a commitment to enforce discipline and uphold ethical conduct within their internal electoral processes.
“If political parties themselves have not dared to deal with this internally, how do you expect it to be effectively enforced at the national level?” he questioned.
