
Pressure group, OccupyGhana, has raised concerns about vote buying and tribalism during elections in the country.
It has therefore called on Parliament and the Attorney-General to extend current election laws and introduce a bill in Parliament to punish election offences committed during intra-party elections.
In a letter dated October 9, 2023, addressed to the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, the Minority Leader, Dr Ato Forson and the Attorney-General, Godfred Odame, OccupyGhana said “we write to invite you to co-sponsor and introduce a bill in Parliament that will specifically extend the current laws that provide and punish for public election offences, to cover party primaries and intra-party elections. We believe that this will be the first step to stemming the now rampant vote-buying, intimidation, violence that have become associated with such elections.”
“OccupyGhana has been very concerned about the phenomena where persons use money and gifts to bribe voters and/or use intimidation, violence, personation, insults, tribalism, falsehoods, against opponents in all elections. These have grown to shockingly brazen levels, especially in party primaries to elect presidential and parliamentary candidates and intra-party elections to elect party officials.”
The bill OccupyGhana believes when passed, will “breathe new anti-corruption life into our body-politic.”
It warned that refusal by the parliamentary leadership and the AG to initiate such a bill will provide a basis for suspicion that the government and the two leading parties are complicit in perpetrating this conduct.
“Gentlemen, your refusal, failure, or neglect to take this step will finally provide basis for the suspicion that the government and the two leading parties actively support, or are complicit in perpetrating, this wrongful conduct.”
There have been counter-accusations of vote buying and intimidation by the two main political parties, NPP and NDC during general elections. There have also been reported cases of intimidation during intra-party elections.