Vote-buying and vote-selling used to happen behind closed doors. These days, it isn’t true. This appears to be a free market where voters can openly sell their votes in broad daylight to candidates, while we all stand by seemingly oblivious. Due to the illegality of vote buying and selling, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan described the scene as abhorrent.
Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the longest-serving Chairman of Ghana’s Electoral Commission, called the practice of buying and selling votes in broad daylight during national elections a “shameful spectacle” during his keynote address at the Constitution Day Public Lecture on January 8, 2024.
In contrast to previous traditions, where such operations were clandestine and, in his opinion, unlawful, Dr. Afari-Gyan highlighted the distinction between the present brazenness of candidates openly purchasing votes and citizens selling their votes in broad daylight.
The longest-serving Chairman of Ghana’s Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, called the practice of buying and selling votes during national elections in broad daylight a “shameful spectacle” when he gave the keynote address at the Constitution Day Public Lecture on January 8, 2024.
Dr. Afari-Gyan stressed the contrast between the contemporary practices, in which candidates publicly buy votes and citizens sell their votes in broad daylight, and the previous ones, in which such actions were clandestine and, in his opinion, unlawful.
At the event, which was put on by the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) Law School and the One Ghana Movement, Dr. Afari-Gyan also lamented the regular occurrence of political pledges being broken. He thinks that politicians usually prioritize making and keeping promises over putting forth particular policies.
He questioned the politicians’ sincerity in keeping many of their promises, calling broken promises “a millstone around a politician’s neck,” and threatening party members who were not originally involved in making the promises.
“One cannot be sure that even the politicians themselves believe that they can fulfil the numerous promises that they make,” the former EC boss stated.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
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