The Progressive People’s Party (PPP), has disagreed with the survey by the Centre for Democratic Development on monetization of the country’s politics, which said it was also part of it, although the two major parties, the NPP and the NDC, are the worst offenders.

The PPP, which denied influencing delegates voters with money, has instead accused the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) of monetizing the December polls.

According to them, the two parties are inducing the electorates with money and making it difficult for the smaller parties to get through to them.

The Center for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana on Thursday, revealed findings of a survey that showed that the NDC topped the list of vote buying, with fifty-one percent, followed by the NPP with thirty-two percent.

The Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the PPP, each had four percent of the electorate accusing them of vote buying.

But responding to the CDD Survey, the General Secretary of the PPP, Mutalla Mohammed, said the two major parties should be blamed for the monetization of the elections.

“I am not sure what the CDD report is implying, I wish they gave us indicators and detail on what they mean by vote-buying . As far as I am concerned, we are cash-strapped and we are looking for resources everywhere to help our people. I don’t think we are doing that, I am not sure any of our party executives are doing that. It is difficult out there because the NPP and NDC have monetized the system so I am not sure of what they [CDD]are talking about and I don’t know for which basis they are saying what they are saying but definitely the PPP is not buying anybody’s vote. I can assure you that and I can tell you because I am on the ground. I am the one doing all the rounds, we are not buying votes. If I am charismatic and the charismatic is winning me votes what can I do about it?

“There is nothing I can do about it. If I can employ a lot of people and the people are voting for me you can’t call that vote buying. Apart from these examples, there is nothing that the PPP or Papa Kwesi Nduom is doing in the party that connotes vote buying but if the number of employees that Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom is making him get some votes what can he do about it”

CPP disapproves of CDD survey 

The Convention People’s Party (CPP) also slammed the survey finding, describing it as not representative.

The Party’s Communications Director, Kadir Abdul Rauf, said that the CPP is only inducing the electorates with its message of a new covenant.

“When we received this information as a party we were very shocked. Why a reputable organization like the CDD will conduct any research and bring out any argument which we find unrepresentative of our party. In any case, what the Convention People’s Party (CPP) expected the CDD to have done in order to strengthen their research finding, is to bring evidence to show. I have been in CPP politics for sometime now, and I can say without any fear of contradiction that the CPP does not engage in that type of campaign. We find that research to be unrepresentative.”

source:citifmonline