One Man, One Vote Will Deepen Internal Party Democracy — Dr Seidu

A Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science of the University of Ghana, Dr Alidu Seidu, has said the adoption of a ‘one man, one vote’ system by political parties to elect their flag bearers will help deepen internal party democracy in the country.

That, he said, was because it would expand the franchise to every qualified party member to vote in the election of a flag bearer.

“The good thing is that when you do one man, one vote, you are expanding the franchise. It means every person who is qualified as a party member can vote and that deepens internal party democracy which can catapult to the national level,” Dr Seidu told the Daily Graphic.

He was sharing his thoughts on suggestions made by another Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo, for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to adopt the system to elect its flag bearer for the 2024 election.

Challenges

Dr Seidu said in spite of the benefit of the system, it came with some challenges, one of which was the financial implication of using such a system.


“The biggest challenge is the money to run it. To be honest with you, it means you will do double elections among your membership. It is expensive in the sense that the party has to spend so much money to get it done across the country and it is also expensive for those who will be running for the position because rather than target a few delegates, you have to go to the 16 regions, polling stations, every electoral area and constituency to campaign,” he explained.

In addition to that, he said, was the issue of infiltration by opposing party members, citing the situation when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) used a similar system with the allegation of NPP members infiltrating the ranks of the NDC as an example.

“Those that infiltrate the system can vote to elect an incompetent candidate who will lose in the general election,” he said.


The political scientist agreed that if political parties could have an up-to-date voters’ register and update it every six months, that could also help address the problem of infiltration.

“So if they can start from there by keeping an accurate voters’ register of members across the length and breadth of the country, it will be good,” he said.


 

By: graphiconline