Wuxor: Japhet Festus Gbede, Assemblymember for the Wuxor Have and Sremanu Electoral Area and a member of the Volta Regional Communication Team of the NDC, has questioned growing legal arguments seeking to portray Ghana's delegate system as entirely undemocratic. According to him, although such legal positions may appear attractive in theory, they fail to consider the practical realities of political organisation and electoral competition in Ghana.
According to Ghana Web, Gbede expressed his views on his official Facebook page, emphasizing that politics everywhere is influenced by factors like influence, organisation, popularity, and financial strength. He insisted that merely expanding internal party elections to include all card-bearing members will not automatically eliminate money politics or create equal opportunities for aspirants. He argued that individuals with greater financial strength would continue to dominate the process, and the cost of internal elections would escalate, making it difficult for political parties to manage.
Gbede also raised concerns about whether the state is financially prepared to support such a transition, questioning if the Electoral Commission could handle the logistics of printing thousands of ballots and deploying officials nationwide for various primaries. He warned about the potential infiltration of party structures by individuals holding multiple party cards to manipulate internal outcomes.
While acknowledging the imperfections of democratic systems, Gbede stressed that reforms to Ghana's political processes must be guided by practicality, consultation, political maturity, and the broader national interest. He urged the Attorney General to focus on corruption-related matters and the recovery of alleged stolen state resources, highlighting that many Ghanaians voted for the current government with expectations of accountability and justice. Gbede concluded that these were the issues Ghanaians expected the Attorney General to prioritize, rather than legal positions that might create confusion and financial pressure within political parties.