Private legal practitioner Kofi Bentil has warned that the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling abolishing the delegates system in party primaries will produce “absurdities” and usher in more complications than it resolves.
The Supreme Court, in a 5-2 majority decision delivered on Wednesday, ordered all political parties in Ghana to allow every registered member to vote in their internal elections, including the selection of national and constituency executives and presidential candidates.
The judgment effectively outlaws the long-standing delegates college model, under which only a limited group of accredited party delegates cast ballots in primaries, and replaces it with a vastly expanded electorate of card-bearing members that could number in the millions nationwide.
Court backs challenge to delegate model
The decision upholds a legal challenge brought by three senior political figures: former ministers Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng and Christine Amoako-Nuamah, and veteran New Patriotic Party (NPP) member Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe.
They had argued that restricting voting rights in internal party contests to a relatively small body of delegates was inherently undemocratic and breached Article 55 of the 1992 Constitution, which requires political parties to be organised along democratic principles.
By siding with the applicants, the court has now compelled parties to open up their leadership and flagbearer elections to universal participation by all properly registered members, rather than a select electoral college.
Concerns over systems and safeguards
Responding to the ruling in a detailed Facebook post, Bentil questioned whether Ghana currently has the institutional capacity to manage universal membership voting in internal party elections on such a large scale.
He stressed that Ghana remains a developing country with incomplete systems for reliably identifying and administering the voting rights of millions of party members across the nation.
“Ghana is still a developing nation. We dont have the systems to properly deal with universal membership voting in party primaries. The Ghana Card is the best shot we have towards creating a system which can support this but it is still not fully deployed for this purpose,” he wrote.
Bentil said that before universal party membership voting can be effectively implemented, basic questions about verification and safeguards must be addressed.
“If we want universal party membership to vote here are some simple questions.
1. What systems do we have to certify that Mr B belongs to Party A and will only vote in their primaries?
2. How do we ensure that NPP people do not vote en-mass for one candidate in NDC Primaries and therefore elect someone NDC people actually dont like?” he asked.
His comments highlight fears that without robust membership databases and secure identification mechanisms, there could be cross-party interference, double voting or manipulation of rival primaries by organised groups.
‘Good judgment avoids absurdities’
Bentil, a prominent voice on constitutional and governance issues, was sharply critical of the practical implications of the court’s ruling, even while acknowledging its democratic intent.
He argued that judicial decisions must not only align with constitutional principles but also be crafted in ways that do not generate unworkable or contradictory outcomes in real-world application.
“A cardinal rule in Judgments is that a good judgment avoids creating absurdities. You can therefore tell a bad judgment by the absurdities it creates. This judgment will work more absurdities and create more problems than it solves,” he wrote.
The ruling is expected to trigger significant changes in how Ghana’s major parties, including the NPP and National Democratic Congress (NDC), conduct their internal elections, with parties now required to adapt their structures and processes to handle mass participation by ordinary members.
However, Bentil’s intervention underlines the scale of the logistical, legal and administrative reforms that will be required if universal membership voting in party primaries is to function credibly and without the “absurdities” he fears.
