Democracy, The Ballot and the CEDI"

A GNA Feature by Mohammed Nurudeen Issahaq

Corruption in the conduct of partisan politics, especially during run-up to elections, continues to pose one of the formidable challenges to democratic development worldwide. It erodes public confidence and weakens the faith of the citizenry in the political process.

The trend is global but is seen in its more pervasive forms in Africa and other parts of the developing world. Here, illiteracy rates are still very high, with a rather low level of political and civic awareness, which translates into little knowledge about the power or value of the vote on the part of the average citizen. Thus the interplay of illiteracy, ignorance, poverty and greed has produced a phenomenon by which money has become ruler in the political arena in our part of the world. Right from the use of illicit money sometimes provided by powerful drug barons and big businessmen and businesswomen of dubious credentials for campaign funding, to the outright purchase of people's votes with cash. For example an illiterate voter in the village does not see anything wrong with selling his vote to a politician for as little as GH=A2 2.
Experts have it that politicians and political parties resort to vote buying as a way of gaining support when they don't have any useful campaign messages at all or when the messages they had did not appeal to the electorate. The situation does not only push up the cost of winning power but also guarantees victory only to the highest bidder rather than the candidate or party of merit.
So the mark continues to be missed since competent candidates don't get the chance to put their ideas into practice for the simple reason that they lacked money to pay for votes.
Money influence undeniably triggers a vicious cycle and provides a foundation for corruption in public office on the part of politicians. Having bought votes with cash and won power, the tendency is for the politician to recover that money fast and by any means necessary. Such a politician, be he/she an MP, a DCE, Minister of State or the number one Chief Executive, is likely to become arrogant and would have very little regard for political dialogue which does not augur well for democratic development. The tendency to make statements such as: "After all, I bought it with my money and I can buy it again so I don't need your opinion/support"; is real.
The outcome of an election flawed by vote-buying negates the fundamental principle of democracy as it cannot in the real sense be said to be a "government of the people and for the people," and also to the extent that the essential participatory element of the concept is lost. The present generation is a living witness to the unfolding of scenarios like these in many parts of the West Africa Sub-Region. The scary truth is that in societies with weak security safeguards, and weak bonds of cohesion, such outcomes could provide good basis for civil strife and open conflicts.
It may be useful to pause at this point and do a little bit of reflection: Is the phenomenon of "Money Politics" in our society real? Yes. Is it a healthy development in our body politic? Certainly not! Is there the need to eradicate it? Yes! Obviously, however, any objective minded person would admit that it is by no means an easy task because the practice has become an accepted norm in politics of today. Without money to influence party delegates and voters you may as well forget about any political ambition no matter how sound your manifesto may seem.
In spite of the obvious consequences of vote buying in our body politic, no concrete solution to the problem is yet in sight. The Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) among other nongovernmental organisation (NGOs) and civil society organizations have been engaged in advocacy programmes to raise public awareness on the problem. This, so far, appears to be the best approach to the issue even though the tempo needs to be stepped up to be able to achieve the desired impact. However, in a system where doing things haphazardly appears to be the norm, it becomes rather difficult to develop. Real progress in development is obtained through accurate planning, which in turn is derived from sustained research. Unfortunately, just as in the case of most countries in Africa, relatively very little research work exists on campaign finance practices in this country.
As a first step towards tackling the problem, therefore, an in-depth research would have to be carried out to gather information especially on the sources of party funding, patterns of expenditure and other related practices.
Legislation alone would not be able to tackle the issue satisfactorily, so a combination of locally led initiatives including the strict enforcement of laid down rules; a clearly spelt out policy on campaign funding; public pressure to demand a restriction on party spending during elections and, above all, a sustained political will for reform.
Civil society advocacy groups like the CDD, party leaders, the Electoral Commission (EC) and Government would have to sit down and fashion out a policy on political party funding and expenditure reform. Above all, there is the need to work at getting political parties and politicians used to the principle of obtaining election victories through an appealing campaign manifesto; good political agenda and credible performance once the candidate or party ascends to power. This way a healthy and sustainable democratic culture would be natured.
Perhaps the following observation contained in the UNDP's Human Development Report (2002) would be a fitting end-note to this piece and a point worth pondering over by all voters: "WHERE MONEY PLAYS A DECISIVE ROLE IN POLITICS, IT TURNS UNEQUAL ECONOMIC POWER INTO UNEQUAL POLITICAL ADVANTAGE AND UNDERMINES THE PRINCIPLE OF ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE." 19 July 07