NPP presidential primaries: Take vote buying allegations to court – Deputy General Secretary tells Professor Baah
The Deputy General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Haruna Mohammed has challenged Dr Amoako Baah to proceed to court to challenge the outcome of the party’s just-ended presidential primary election if he believes it was characterized by electoral irregularities.
The political scientist threatened to sue the party for cajoling appointees and members of parliament to support the candidacy of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and had induced party delegates with money.
This, he said, should not be countenanced if Ghana intends to keep its democratic credentials.
According to Haruna Mohammed, the party was democratic and abides by the dictates of the constitution, therefore the party would be ready to go to court to contest the results of the elections if anyone believed that there were some manipulations.
Speaking on Joy News’ The Pulse, he said “There was no vote buying and I think that Professor Amoako Baah is free to, you know, one of our building principles is the rule of law and Professor Amoako Baah can go to court if he thinks that there is something wrong.”
He explained that contesting the results of the elections would only strengthen Ghana’s democracy as it would leave room to prove the processes of elections was devoid of discrepancies.
“I think that it is always good for us to test the constitution and test the legal process in terms of how these things are being done. We have seen a number of times how vote buying is eating into our political landscape but we have not taken the opportunity to test it. I will challenge him to test that legal process for us to see how it goes,” he told host Blessed Sogah on Monday.
Asked what his opinion was of aspirants buying votes, he insisted he could not remember any aspirant involved in these acts.
“What I heard them [aspirants] say was to support them [delegates]. Perhaps what we [the party] have given them was not enough. We gave GH₵50 as transport. None of them said they have given money to influence them and I think that this particular election the results that you are seeing tells you that nobody has influenced anybody in this particular election.”
During the elections on November 4, some delegates confirmed to JoyNews they had received sums ranging from GH₵400 and GH₵300 from then aspirants Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Kennedy Agyapong respectively.
Source: Ghana News
