The Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has criticized certain political party leaders who demand for cars and land as prerequisites for allowing party members to contest in Parliamentary primaries.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu condemned such instances of vote buying and emphasized the need to address this issue in the country’s electoral process.
During a leadership engagement with the Parliamentary Press Corps on Wednesday, February 7, the Majority Leader stated,
“You have people coming to you to tell you that you should buy a car for them before they vote for you. Especially the leadership of the parties, they ask for cars before they allow you to contest, even land…we should be real.”
The Suame MP proposed that political parties reconsider such practices and suggested introspection to possibly eliminate these demands.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu highlighted the need for a shift towards a system resembling established democracies or expanding voting rights to all card-bearing party members.
“My proposition is that the parties should introspect and perhaps scrap this thing as it is in established democracies…
If we want to continue to live with this communist arrangement, then we will perhaps have to go further downstream to enable every card-bearing member of the party to vote,” he said.
Additionally, the Majority Leader cautioned against apathy among MPs who did not secure victory in their Parliamentary primaries and emphasized the importance of continued engagement in parliamentary business.
