The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has condemned incidents of vote buying witnessed during the recent presidential and parliamentary polls of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The anti-graft organisation pointed out that “such practices compromise the principles of equality, accountability, and good governance” and called for further investigations into the acts.
Reports of vote buying emerged as the party held its internal elections on Saturday, May 13, 2023, nationwide.
In one of the instances, a parliamentary aspirant in the Ejura Sekyeredumase Constituency, Juliana Kinang Wassan, was captured in a video showering cash on people around her car while elections were underway.
The aspirant, who explained that she only shared the cash to show love to members of her party, was invited 48 hours later by the Office of the Special Prosecutor over a suspected case of corruption after the video went viral.
Media Without Borders also spotted many delegates at the private residence of the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bongo, Edward Abambire Bawa, during voting hours.
The delegates disclosed during a videoed undercover interaction with Media Without Borders that they (the delegates) were being camped separately by the MP at three locations in the Upper East Region— Zorkor, Bolgatanga and Bongo— on the voting day.
When Media Without Borders contacted the MP for his remarks on the findings, he replied: “No comment.”
Both Bawa and Wassan eventually lost the elections in their respective constituencies.
Below is a copy of the GII’s statement. Also find a video embedded below showing delegates at the residence of the MP for Bongo on voting day.
Source: Fidelis Ohene Boateng/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org
