The Director of Programmes and Policy Engagement at the Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana), Dr Kojo Pumpuni Asante, has advised the New Patriotic Party to as a matter of urgency, learn from its mistake in the recent by-election in Assin North, myjoyonline reports.
According to him, the party needs to examine and make corrections on how it uses its position as government adding that it could create a problem for the party, going into the 2024 election.
“The New Patriotic Party (NPP) needs to learn from its mistakes in the by-election. The party needs to revise how it uses incumbency advantage because the use of such a position to create impunity amongst voters as they allegedly did in Assin North would backfire,” he said.
Dr Asante also touching on the incidents of vote-buying during elections, proposed that there should be proper undercover investigations that will help to expose the people involved.
This, he said needs to be undertaken due to the fact that it would be extremely difficult to have individuals willfully report such cases.
“I’ve tried to press on the Special Prosecutor who is charged with dealing with politically exposed persons to get into the space because I really think it’s not just about vote-buying. I think it’s vote-selling and vote-buying,” he said on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday.
“I think we are a long way from December 07, 2024. So, there are still many things to resolve. The NPP’s own internal party primaries have to be resolved to know who’s their candidate. That would help assess the strength of the candidates going into the election,” he said.
“So, I think this example has to be set in terms of even the citizens who are also receiving the money. But I think the tactics should also include undercover because you’re not going to really get people coming forward to say we’re receiving cash,” he added.
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Director of Programmes and Policy Engagement, CDD-Ghana, Dr Kojo Pumpuni Asante