Monetisation of elections

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) held a primary for the upcoming Ayawaso East by-election last Saturday.

Since then, the monetisation of our elections and voter inducement has gained attention in public discourse.

This conversation is cyclical, often triggered when our two main political parties hold internal elections, and our attention is drawn to the role of delegates in the process. There are two tensions in search of reconciliation.

On the one hand, there is no denying the fact that contesting elections requires financial resources.

On the other hand, there are concerns not only about how much financial resources are needed, but also how they are deployed to secure victory for a candidate.

The political reality

As previously stated, there is no denying that the decision to contest in an election has financial implications because campaigns cost money.

Every candidate needs money to be able to pay for certain campaign expenditures.

For a parliamentary candidate, the two-step process involves a primary and a general election at the constituency level. 

For a presidential candidate, the two-step process involves a primary and a general election, where they must travel across the length and breadth of the country to secure votes.

Let’s not forget the length of the campaign period either, because the longer the time frame, the more costly campaigns get.

This political reality leads naturally to an obvious question: where do candidates get the financial resources to fund their campaigns?

In Ghana, the answer is unclear.

Officially, we do not know because there are no campaign finance records that the public can access from a state institution with oversight responsibility. In the United States, for example, one can simply visit the Federal Election Commission’s website and access very detailed campaign finance information.

However, anecdotally, we hear of campaign finance sources such as financiers, loans, personal resources, or support from family and friends.

How much comes from each of these sources is not known.

More importantly, we do not know why they donate, especially those designated as ‘financiers.’

We can, however, assume that they are motivated by good intentions and not an expectation of political rewards once the candidate wins.

Campaign expenditures – What is acceptable and what is not No Ghanaian, and certainly no state anti-corruption institution, will begrudge a candidate who incurs campaign expenditure on items such as travelling through a constituency or across the country to canvas for votes. I am also certain that the same will apply if candidates spend money on research to understand the needs and concerns of voters or pay campaign workers

 The outrage and interest of state anti-corruption institutions is the appearance of the use of financial and non-financial resources to influence how people vote.

In essence, Ghanaians are frowning upon the appearance of vote-buying.

Vote buying is sometimes difficult to prove.

Take a political party primary as an example.

Even when candidates admit they offered financial or non-financial resources to delegates, they frame it as gifts or T&T.

The coincidence, though, is odd, in my view, because it is intriguing that a candidate offered no gifts to delegates until it was time for a contest to determine who represents the party in an election.

How do you decipher and prove that these are not merely gifts or transportation support but rather ways to influence an election outcome in a particular direction?

At the end of the day, though, we can all agree that it is unacceptable to buy votes.

If we do, then we are obligated to find a solution to it.

You see, vote-buying distorts the playing field and undermines the integrity of any electoral process.

It suggests that elections are designed to pick the candidate with the most financial resources to ‘buy’ votes and not necessarily the one who will best represent the interests of the community. 

The way forward

We should not accept the status quo, and comments such as “well, that is how politics works, and everyone does it” must be routinely rejected, otherwise we will end up normalising malpractices such as vote- buying.

It is an understatement to say that revisiting our political party and campaign finance legal framework is more critical now, so that any gaps can be addressed.

But revisiting the laws and strengthening them is only one part.

The other part is to enforce and punish those who violate the law.

Another idea I have regularly promoted to help solve this problem when it comes to internal party elections is dismantling the delegate system and moving to an open primary – let every registered member of the party vote.

I understand the concerns – logistics, cost, potential infiltration by political rival voters.

These concerns pale in comparison to protecting the integrity of our elections and not reducing Ghana’s democracy to a game for the highest bidder.

The writer is the Project Director, Democracy Project.