The Supreme Court has acknowledged that opening political party primaries to all registered members will not eliminate money politics but insists the move will make electoral corruption significantly more difficult.

The position is contained in the court's judgment in Prof Frimpong-Boateng & 2 Others v NPP & 4 Others, in which a seven-member panel, by a 5–2 majority, declared the delegates system used by political parties to elect presidential and parliamentary candidates unconstitutional.

The panel comprised Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, Justice Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu, Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu, Justice Senyo Dzamefe, Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu and Justice George Kingsley Koomson.

An excerpt of the judgment was shared on Facebook by Deputy Attorney General Justice Srem-Sai.

Addressing concerns that expanding participation in party primaries would not automatically eradicate vote-buying, Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie said the court was under no illusion that corruption would simply disappear.

"True, opening party primaries to every party member is no guarantee that money politics will disappear. Corruption is remarkably adaptable. It often changes its form rather than vanish altogether. Yet constitutional adjudication rarely offers perfect solutions. The Court is often required to choose the course that best promotes constitutional values in imperfect circumstances."

The Chief Justice, however, explained that the delegates system itself creates conditions that make targeted inducements easier because power is concentrated in the hands of a relatively small number of people.

"Concentrating decisive electoral power in a relatively small body of delegates inevitably increases the value of each delegate's vote. It creates a smaller market, a more identifiable electorate and, therefore, a more attractive environment for targeted inducements.

"A broader electorate may increase campaign costs, but it also disperses political power among thousands of ordinary members, making it considerably more difficult for electoral outcomes to be shaped by a relatively small number of transactions."

For the court, the constitutional question was not whether the new system would eliminate corruption, but whether it better advances the democratic values enshrined in the Constitution.

Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie concluded that Ghana's constitutional democracy requires political parties to adopt a broader and more inclusive model of internal elections.

"For that reason, this Court may legitimately conclude that, at this stage of Ghana's democratic development, fidelity to the Constitution requires political parties to embrace the model of democracy that the Constitution itself consistently prefers for the purpose of constituting political authority."

The judgment forms part of the Supreme Court's landmark ruling requiring political parties to abandon the delegates system in favour of broader participation by their members in the election of party executives and the selection of presidential and parliamentary candidates.