Mahdi Jibril, the Acting Director of Elections of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has warned candidates contesting the party’s regional elections not to use money or material gifts to secure support from delegates.
He said delegates should be free to decide which candidates they wanted to elect, arguing that financial inducements and the distribution of goods threatened the credibility of the party’s internal democratic process.
The regional elections are scheduled for November 14 and 15, and Mr Jibril said the NDC was working to prevent vote-buying, particularly on polling day. He made the comments on November 4 as preparations for the elections continued.
“What I wish is that delegates should be left free to go and vote. We also don’t want to see people using items, resources, to just influence voters on the election day,” he said.
Mr Jibril accepted that offering money or items could affect the choices made by delegates, but said such practices were damaging to democratic participation.
“Although statistics have shown that the more you give, they just give you the votes. But it doesn’t work well in our democracy. And that’s what we don’t want to see,” he added.
His comments follow concerns over alleged vote-buying during the NDC’s recent constituency executive elections. Reports from some areas claimed that delegates had been given money and household items in an effort to influence their votes.
The party’s Deputy Director of Elections and IT, Rashid Tanko-Computer, has separately said that credible allegations from those elections would be investigated.
Mr Jibril also said the NDC was working with the Ghana Police Service to complete security arrangements for the regional polls. He added that the Electoral Commission was preparing the ballot papers.
The regional contests are part of the NDC’s wider internal reorganisation ahead of the 2028 general elections.
