The uproar over the Ayawaso East NDC parliamentary primary would be more convincing if Ghana’s political class had not spent years normalizing precisely the behavior it now pretends to abhor.
Television sets, food items and allegations of cash inducements have dominated the public conversation following Baba Jamal’s narrow victory. Yet the attempt to frame this episode as an unprecedented moral collapse is disingenuous. Delegate inducement in internal party elections did not begin in Ayawaso East in 2026, and pretending otherwise insults the intelligence of party members and the Ghanaian public.
Let us deal with facts, not political theatre
Credible reports surrounding the Ayawaso East primary indicate that:
• Allegations surfaced of delegates receiving television sets and food items, while other aspirants were accused of distributing cash and motorbikes.
• The NDC itself acknowledged the allegations, announcing an internal investigation into vote buying and inducement.
• The Presidency recalled Baba Jamal from his diplomatic post, citing integrity concerns linked to the controversy.
These are serious actions. But seriousness requires honesty, and honesty demands context. This episode does not exist in isolation.
This problem long predates Ayawaso East
Civil society organizations have warned for years that inducement has become entrenched in internal party contests. Following the NDC’s 2023 parliamentary and presidential primaries, the Ghana Integrity Initiative publicly condemned the open distribution of money and goods to delegates, describing it as a distortion of democratic competition and a potential violation of Ghana’s criminal laws on undue influence.
Video footage from those primaries showed aspirants openly spraying cash on delegates. In other constituencies, food items and household goods were reportedly distributed after voting. The Office of the Special Prosecutor even invited at least one aspirant for questioning over suspected corruption linked to inducement during internal elections.
Put plainly: money politics in party primaries has been visible, documented, condemned—and largely unpunished.
So why the sudden moral outrage?
This is the uncomfortable question many grassroots observers are now asking.
If inducement has characterized internal contests for years—including the 2022 and 2023 cycles—and if some current constituency and national executives themselves emerged from those same systems, then selective outrage becomes a credibility problem.
It raises unavoidable questions:
• Is enforcement consistent or factional?
• Are rules applied uniformly, or only when results are politically inconvenient?
• Is this truly about ethics, or about preferred candidates?
These are not malicious questions. They are legitimate ones.
A systemic failure, not a one-party issue
This challenge is not unique to the NDC. Ghana’s two dominant political parties have both faced persistent allegations of delegate inducement across parliamentary and presidential primaries. Governance analysts have long warned that internal elections are increasingly driven by financial mobilization rather than ideas, transforming delegate systems into high-cost, transactional contests.
When inducement becomes structurally embedded, two consequences are inevitable:
1. Aspirants begin to view internal elections as financial investments to be recouped later in public office.
2. Party leadership loses the moral authority to condemn practices it has previously tolerated or ignored.
The December reality
Even at the presidential level, late-year political activities were dogged by allegations of cash distribution to delegates and organizers. Whether proven in every instance or not, the perception is now widespread within political circles: money politics has become an open secret.
This is not about one constituency. It is about a political culture.
Time to end the presence
If political parties are serious about confronting vote buying, three steps are unavoidable:
First, admit the scale of the problem.
Not as a one-off scandal, but as a structural defect in delegate-based internal elections.
Second, apply the rules consistently.
If cash, televisions, food or “logistics support” constitute inducement, enforcement must be even-handed—across factions, personalities and election cycles.
Third, reform internal electoral systems.
Delegate systems that concentrate power in small, financially targetable groups will always invite inducement unless transparency, monitoring and accountability are radically strengthened.
Bottom line
The Ayawaso East controversy is not shocking.
What would be shocking is if it finally forces honest reflection.
Vote buying in internal party elections did not start with Baba Jamal.
It will not end with Baba Jamal.
Unless political parties abandon selective outrage and confront the systems that enable inducement, every future primary will follow the same tired script: allegations, denials, investigations—and then silence.
Young Progressive Network believes Ghana deserves better than political hypocrisy disguised as moral awakening.
