The recent National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary primaries across the nation have once again brought up the subject of money and its influence on our democracy.
There is a correlation between wealth and electoral success that is well accepted, and as long as the funds were raised legally and properly accounted for, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with it. However, we should be concerned when monetary resources start to determine who is included and who is excluded in the selection of candidates in developing democracies like Ghana.
There is little question that the choice of parliamentary candidates in Ghana is heavily influenced by money. It might be claimed that candidates with financial advantages often have an advantage over those without because, through media exposure, personal visits, and the planning of meetings with associated costs, they are able to contact more voters.
This explains why financial factors have consistently affected many facets of political parties' and their candidates' campaigns prior to every election. For instance, one's capacity to hire polling researchers, qualified campaign workers, and media advocates depends on their financial clout.
Incentives
The other option, which does not advance internal democracy, is when wealthy donors, national, regional, or constituency executives offer financial inducements or other types of handouts to specific candidates in specific constituencies in order to sway the election's outcome in favor of the "chosen messiah." The NDC's selection of candidates was significantly impacted by money, allowing wealthy people to have a big edge in the election process.
It's also feasible that those with the resources won because their campaign messages, abilities, and expertise were superior.
In other words, it would be false to say that all primaries across all seats were decided by money. At least the candidate who is the subject of an Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP) inquiry after she was seen on camera freely "sharing" money in a popular video lost support in her district.
This is consistent with the theoretical claim that a variety of dynamic variables influence electoral outcomes. Money, however, is the issue being discussed here because of its propensity to prohibit other qualified, experienced, and competent individuals from participating in the legislative contest, at least in the two major parties in Ghana, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who have established themselves as reliable and important fixtures in each election.
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