About a month ago, in “Monetised Mandates: Reclaiming Ghana’s Democracy from Partisan Capture”, I argued that our democratic experiment faced an existential threat not from external aggression, but from an internal structural decay.
The monetisation of our electoral process, specifically through the restrictive party delegate system, had effectively turned internal primaries into commercial auctions, privatising the democratic franchise and converting political parties into patronage syndicates.
Today, the apex court of the land has handed down a historic verdict, declaring the exclusive delegate system unconstitutional.
This ruling is a monumental victory for Ghanaian democracy. By striking down a mechanism that concentrated immense voting power in the hands of a small, easily targetable pool of party delegates, the Supreme Court has struck a decisive blow against retail vote-buying at the primary level. It validates what civil society, policy analysts, and citizens have long maintained: our internal party processes must align with the fundamental spirit of the 1992 Constitution, which guarantees universal equal participation.
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However, while we must celebrate this ruling as an indispensable step in the right direction, we must also recognise that a judicial decree is not a silver bullet. A court verdict creates the legal framework for reform; political will and structural policy determine whether that reform takes root.
A Direct Call to Political Parties: Uphold the Spirit, Not Just the Letter
The immediate responsibility now rests on the shoulders of Ghana’s political parties, particularly the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Convention People’s Party (CPP).
Party leaderships must refrain from seeking technical loopholes, delaying tactics, or administrative workarounds designed to preserve elite control. Transitioning to a true One-Member, One-Vote universal franchise across all constituencies requires more than an update to party bylaws; it demands transparent, audited, and verifiable membership registers.
If parties attempt to replace the delegate bottleneck with manipulated voter rolls or exorbitant nomination fees designed to price out credible candidates, they will subvert the very intent of the Supreme Court’s ruling. Political parties must embrace this moment to rebuild public trust by demonstrating that leadership is earned through persuasive ideas and policy visions, not financial leverage.
The Unfinished Agenda: The Next Steps for the State
Dismantling the delegate auction addresses the primary supply-side bottleneck of vote-buying, but it does not fully dismantle the broader financial machinery that captures our state. To achieve true demonetisation of our democratic system, the state must now execute the remaining structural reforms:
1. Enforce Independent Campaign Finance Oversight: Expanding the primary franchise to thousands of members will alter campaign logistics, but it could lead candidates to seek even larger pools of undisclosed capital for broader retail campaigns. Parliament must urgently pass legislation establishing an independent Multiparty Campaign Finance Commission with statutory powers to audit candidate accounts in real-time, enforce spending caps, and prosecute non-compliance under the Political Parties Act, 2000 (Act 574).
2. Mandate Real-Time Donor Transparency: To insulate legislative office from dirty money derived from illicit mining, tax evasion, or corrupt procurement, candidates contesting public office must be required by law to declare all major financial donations publicly before election day.
3. Level the Playing Field with Non-Monetary Subsidies: The state should reduce candidate expenditures by providing structured public campaign infrastructure. Expanding access to state-owned media (such as GBC) for structured candidate debates hosted by the NCCE ensures that candidates compete on policy substance rather than media blitzes funded by private financiers.
4. Decouple Public Appointments from Presidential Patronage: Monetisation persists because winning elections confers absolute control over state resources. We must pursue constitutional amendments to strip the executive of unilateral appointment powers over State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and regulatory bodies, transitioning to merit-based, parliamentary-approved appointments with staggered terms.
Conclusion: From Legal Victory to Democratic Renewal
The Supreme Court has given Ghana a rare and precious opportunity to course-correct. By removing the legal shield from the delegate system, the court has reopened the door for technocrats, public servants, youth, and leaders of high integrity to enter public life without selling their mandates to the highest bidder.
Now, the work of operationalising this ruling begins. Political parties must honour the court’s decision in good faith, and the state must push forward with comprehensive legislative and constitutional reforms. We must ensure that this landmark ruling becomes the foundation of a renewed, resilient, and truly representative Ghanaian democracy.
Source: Victoria Nyarkoah Sam (PhD), Economist, Lecturer, and Security Analyst