Opening up political party primaries to all registered members could weaken the entrenched influence of money in Ghana’s internal party elections, according to CDD-Ghana Fellow, Dr John Osae-Kwapong.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Monday, Dr Osae-Kwapong argued that the current delegate-based system makes vote-buying easier and sustains the unhealthy electoral practices that have plagued party politics for years.
“We would see or read or hear stories about the same incidents of vote buying or vote influencing,” he said. “It would be framed as it was just something to support TNT or whatever.”
He said, despite public outrage over such practices, the internal dynamics of party politics have largely remained unchanged, especially during primaries.
“But I don’t think that dynamic of electoral politics, especially when it comes to internal party politics, would change,” he said.
Dr Osae-Kwapong said he supports the Constitutional Review Committee’s recommendation for open primaries within political parties, in which all registered members in good standing are allowed to vote.
“I have advocated, and I support the recommendation from the constitutional review committee that when it comes to internal party elections, if you are a registered member of the political party in good standing, you should be allowed to participate in party primaries,” he said.
He acknowledged that political parties may resist such reforms, but insisted that open primaries offer a practical response to concerns about money politics.
“Now I’m not sure if the political parties would embrace that recommendation,” he said.
Dr Osae-Kwapong explained that the core problem lies in the small size of the electorate in delegate-based primaries, which makes it easier for aspirants to influence outcomes through inducements.
“My argument has always been that if our concern is that a candidate can easily, quote, unquote, buy a number of delegates, then to make it harder to do that, if you have an open primary, it is more difficult to quote and quote buy an entire constituency than it is to quote and quote buy a group of delegates,” he said.
Despite this, he expressed little optimism that parties would voluntarily reform their internal systems.
“But I don’t see that dynamic, and as cynical as that may sound, I don’t see that dynamic changes in the primaries and party elections will,” he said.
His comments come amid renewed debate about political financing, internal party democracy and the role of money in shaping electoral outcomes in Ghana.
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