By-elections need review — John Boadu

An aspiring National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, has called for a national dialogue to review the conduct and cost of by-elections. 

He wondered about the relevance of parliamentary by-elections that did not alter Parliament’s balance of power and, therefore, entreated political parties, civil society organisations and the Electoral Commission for such a dialogue.

“Sometimes the needless resources that we commit in such by-elections and the associated violence and all that is something that does not match the investment we put into such a venture,” he told the Daily Graphic in an interview.

Low turnout

He cited the low voter turnout in the Ayawaso East by-election and similar trends in previous polls as grounds for his suggestion for a national discourse.

Mr Boadu, who is a former General Secretary of the NPP, said the issue about voter apathy during by-elections needed to be addressed.

“By-elections over the years have been like that. Maybe it just brings into question the relevance of by-elections, particularly when the winner of the election does not change the balance of power in Parliament.” 
 

Context

The Ayawaso East Constituency has 49,966 registered voters.

But at the close of the by-election last Tuesday, a total of 17,048 ballots were cast, out of which 16,928 were valid, with 120 rejected ballots.

Official results released by the Electoral Commission (EC) indicated that National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Alhaji Mohammed Baba Jamal Ahmed, secured 10,884 votes to retain the seat for the NDC, while the NPP’s Baba Ali Yussif obtained 4,009 votes, as against Ibrahim Iddrisu of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), who polled 43 votes.

Two independent candidates, Umar Sanda Mohammed and David Akonor, garnered 1,885 and 104 votes, respectively.

Critical

Mr Boadu said by-elections should become necessary only when their outcome would determine which party held the majority in the House.

“But if it does not determine the balance of power in Parliament, I think that it is important that we have proper discussions on the subject,” he said.

In respect to this, he said, the party whose candidate might have lost his life or otherwise, conducts a primary to be supervised by the EC and the name of the winner transmitted to Parliament.

He said the country could adopt the South African example, where the leader of the largest political party was elected by the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament.