A Political Scientist at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Dr Richard Amokao Baah has said persons seeking to contest in the internal elections of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and other political parties ought to have the wherewithal to push their agenda through.
Anyone seeking to contest in the polls but does not have enough money should forget that ambition, he said.
Speaking in an interview with TV3’s Alfred Ocansey, Dr Amoako Baah said money comes first in politics, then competence can be considered afterwards by the delegates.
“if you have five candidates running, they all have money to pay in the primary, they contest.
“It gets to a certain point the delegates will take into consideration one who is capable, competent, they have all paid. But if you don’t have money to pay at all, forget competence, you will not even get to that point where competence will be considered.
“The money comes first , initially you have to have some money, you cannot be completely broke and you are running for what? ”
He added “…This is not democracy, that is why I said the highest bidder wins. Yes in some instances, it is not only the money. If you make yourself too notorious within your own battle, they will show you as they showed the former General Secretary.”
The growing trend of monetization in Ghana’s electoral processes has been a concern for persons including Dr Amoako Baah and the Majority Leader in Parliament Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu for instance, noted earlier that this situation has reached alarming proportions and national crisis.
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He observed further that, the level of monetization of elections and politics in Ghana is unsustainable, affecting both the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) as well as the other political parties.
“All the parties are guilty,” Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who is also the Minister Responsible for Parliamentary Affairs (MOPA), said at the Ministry’s turn at a media encounter dubbed “Meet the Press”, held at the Ministry of Information, in Accra in 2019.
Source:3news.com