From Choice to Transaction: How Vote Buying Is Weakening Ghana’s Democracy

A Time for Honest Reckoning

Recent allegations of vote buying during the Ayawaso East parliamentary primary have once again drawn national attention to a problem that has quietly grown within our democracy. Beyond the immediate controversy, the episode invites a broader civic reflection about how elections, especially internal party contests, are increasingly shaped by money and material inducements.

We must admit, as a people, that vote buying has become a worrying feature of our electoral culture. These incidents are often not isolated. They point to a deeper pattern, the gradual monetisation of political power and the normalisation of inducement as a campaign strategy. Addressing this challenge requires a decisive and collective effort that rises above blame games, name-calling, and partisan point scoring. Silence, indifference, and social acceptance have helped the practice persist, even when many privately condemn it.

When Public Service Becomes a Financial Investment

Democracy rests on a simple but profound trust: citizens elect leaders to serve the public good. When candidates seek support through cash, gifts, or material incentives, that trust weakens. Political choice begins to resemble a transaction rather than a judgment about competence, integrity, and vision.

It is also important to recognise why the practice has gained ground. Internal party contests often take place in tightly controlled delegate systems, where small electorates can be influenced more easily. Campaigns have also become expensive, while financial disclosure and internal oversight remain weak or inconsistently applied. In some contexts, what is described as “support”, “hospitality”, or “transport” becomes a convenient cover for inducement. These realities help explain the persistence of the problem, but they do not justify it. If leadership can be bought, public service becomes vulnerable to private interests.

The question we must confront is straightforward: if leadership is purchased, whose interests will ultimately be served, those of the ordinary voter or those of the people who financed the purchase? The danger is structural. A political environment that rewards spending over persuasion will continue producing the same outcomes, regardless of which party or candidate is involved, unless the system itself is strengthened. Once politics becomes transactional, public office risks being treated as an investment that must generate returns. It then becomes harder to sustain a culture where leadership is understood as a mandate to deliver development, accountability, and genuine service.

Because vote buying corrupts choice at the source, the legal and enforcement questions matter.

What the Law Says and Where Enforcement Struggles

Ghana’s electoral laws prohibit inducement. Under Sections 33 and 34 of the Representation of the People Law, 1992 (PNDCL 284), it is a criminal offence to give money or anything of value, or to provide food, drink, entertainment, or related benefits, to influence a voter. Conviction may attract fines, imprisonment, and disqualification.

However, enforcement remains uneven, and these standards are not consistently applied in internal party primaries. This creates space for misconduct during candidate selection, even though primaries shape the choices voters face in national elections. If the foundations are compromised, the entire democratic process is weakened. Ghana cannot meaningfully reduce vote buying without clearer rules, credible enforcement, and institutional commitment that reaches beyond election day.

Why Every Citizen and Delegate Must Be Alarmed

It is tempting to see inducement as a small issue, a momentary exchange that benefits an individual voter or delegate. Yet the short-term gain often produces long-term national costs. The risks are profound.

First, wealth begins to outweigh worth. Leadership becomes a contest of financial muscle rather than competence, integrity, and ideas. Second, inducement creates fertile conditions for corruption. Candidates who spend heavily may feel pressured to recover their costs, turning public office into a marketplace of favours and repayments. Third, merit is quietly priced out. Capable citizens who lack money or wealthy backers may never reach the point where their ideas can compete fairly. Fourth, trust in institutions erodes. When citizens believe outcomes are purchased, confidence in parties, elections, and democratic governance declines.

The Moral Audit: Questions We Cannot Avoid

Every voter and delegate must confront difficult questions. Why would someone whose primary desire is to serve begin by purchasing influence? If a candidate spends a fortune to secure office, what pressures will shape their conduct once power is attained? Will their tenure be defined by public service or by the logic of repayment?

Democracy becomes stronger when leaders are chosen because citizens believe in their character, their programme, and their commitment to national progress, not because voters were offered cash or gifts.

The Frontline Responsibility of Political Parties

Political parties serve as gatekeepers of leadership. If parties fail to protect integrity within their own processes, national reforms will remain fragile. Parties that seek public trust should move beyond speeches and apply practical safeguards.

They should adopt strict and enforceable sanctions against inducement in internal contests, with clear procedures for reporting and adjudication. They should strengthen transparency around delegate systems and reduce secrecy in selection processes that make manipulation easier. Where feasible, they should broaden participation in internal voting, because wider electorates reduce the power of targeted bribery. They should also invest in ethical political education from the grassroots upward, so that party activism becomes more issue-based and less transactional.

The Power of the Citizen: Our Shared Duty

Protecting Ghana’s democracy is a non-partisan responsibility. Institutions matter, but citizen choices matter as well. Citizens and delegates must reject inducements that are linked to voting decisions. They must speak up and report misconduct through appropriate channels, including internal party mechanisms and state institutions mandated to act. They must demand substance, programmes, and measurable commitments, not patronage. They must also hold leaders accountable after elections, because accountability reduces the incentives that drive money in politics.

The Way Forward: Reclaiming Our Democratic Soul

Reform must begin where political careers are often decided, within party primaries. If parties succeed in reducing vote buying in internal contests, national elections will be stronger, and public confidence in democratic governance will deepen.

Ghana has built a reputation for electoral stability through sacrifice, vigilance, and a commitment to constitutional rule. Preserving that legacy requires consistent enforcement, stronger internal party governance, and a shared rejection of transactional politics. The time for concerted and decisive action is now.

May God bless our homeland, Ghana and make her great and strong!

Eric Adu, Esq.
Regional Director, NCCE, Ahafo Region

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