Executive Director of Transparency International Ghana, Mary Awelana Addah, has said the Supreme Court’s landmark decision mandating a “one member, one vote” system for political party elections reflects the realities of vote-buying that have long characterised Ghana’s internal party politics.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, August 1, Ms Addah argued that the apex court’s 5–2 majority decision was a carefully considered judgment informed by the political realities facing the country.
According to her, the justices would have been fully aware of the persistent concerns surrounding the influence of money in internal political party elections before reaching their conclusion.
“As for the promises, they are many and so I believe that is why this is very instructive, and I am sure that the justices didn’t come to this conclusion easily,” she said.
Her remarks follow Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling that all registered members in good standing of political parties must be allowed to vote in the election of party leaders and parliamentary and presidential candidates.
The judgment effectively ends the long-standing delegate system employed by Ghana’s major political parties, replacing it with a broader “one member, one vote” model that is expected to reshape internal party democracy.
The constitutional challenge, which was determined by a seven-member panel, had generated considerable legal and political debate over whether limiting voting rights to delegates was consistent with the Constitution.
The ruling is expected to have significant implications for the conduct of future presidential, parliamentary and executive primaries, as political parties review their constitutions and electoral processes to comply with the court’s decision.
Commenting on one of the key arguments underpinning the debate, Ms Addah rejected suggestions that vote-buying in political party elections is merely speculative.
“They also live in Ghana and they have seen, and when our politicians again say vote-buying is an issue of conjecture, I believe they are dreaming and they are not facing the reality we have seen,” she stated.
The anti-corruption advocate said the practice has become a visible feature of political contests in Ghana, despite repeated attempts by some political actors to dismiss allegations of inducements as unsubstantiated.
According to her, organisations monitoring elections and governance have documented numerous instances that point to the influence of money in political processes. However, translating those observations into legally admissible evidence has remained a major challenge.
“We’ve captured [these incidents], then again, they come at us that there is no evidence to substantiate this because the gaps in there is very weak,” she said.
Ms Addah suggested that weaknesses in evidence collection and enforcement mechanisms have often made it difficult to successfully investigate or prosecute allegations of vote-buying, even where concerns have been widely reported.
She maintained that this should not be interpreted as proof that the practice does not exist, arguing instead that it highlights the need for stronger accountability measures and more robust systems for documenting electoral misconduct.
While acknowledging that the implementation of the new system may present logistical and financial challenges for political parties, Ms Addah indicated that expanding participation in internal elections could also reduce the concentration of influence among a relatively small number of delegates, a practice critics have long argued creates fertile ground for vote-buying and undue influence.
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