Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has expressed concern over the financial implications of abolishing the delegates system for the selection of presidential and parliamentary candidates.
He said although expanding the electoral college to allow all party members to vote would deepen internal democracy, the exercise would impose significant financial costs on political parties.
Mr Asiedu Nketiah made the remarks in an interview with JoyNews on Tuesday, August 4, while reflecting on the NDC’s experience during its 2014 internal elections, when the party adopted a more inclusive voting system.
He said the expanded voting process required the establishment of thousands of polling stations nationwide to enable members, particularly those in remote communities, to vote without travelling long distances.
“There are certain electoral areas that are made up of clusters of villages, and in that case you will have more polling stations in the villages so that you don’t ask people to travel, and so we ended up opening more than 8,000 polling stations and the Electoral Commission took the view that this was a private election whose costs must be borne exclusively by the party,” he said.
Mr Asiedu Nketiah said the Electoral Commission recruited about four polling officials for each polling station, with the party bearing the full cost of personnel and election materials.
“The Electoral Commission didn’t contribute a pesewa, and so in the end, in those days, we spent close to GH¢14 million in 2014,” he said.
He, therefore, called for state support to fund future internal party elections if all registered members were required to participate in the selection of candidates.
“My expectation is that even though the system is good, since we are being compelled to help citizens exercise their civic and democratic rights, it sits very well if you ask the state to budget for this exercise so that the Electoral Commission can conduct it free of charge,” he said.
His comments follow a recent Supreme Court ruling declaring the delegates system used by political parties to elect their presidential and parliamentary candidates unconstitutional.
In a 5–2 majority decision delivered on July 29, the Court directed all political parties to adopt arrangements that would allow every member in good standing to vote directly in the selection of presidential and parliamentary candidates.
