The Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) has admonished citizens to stand firm and reject attempts by politicians to buy their votes in the upcoming general election. 

A representative of the Centre, Rev. Dr Fred Deegbe, urged voters to vote wisely devoid of any influence to elect the right leaders to enable them to exact accountability.  

“A vote is your will, choice and conscience, taking money means you are selling your conscience and ability to hold leadership accountable,” he cautioned.  

Rev. Dr Deegbe made the remarks at the 10th anniversary public lecture of the Political Science Education Department of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW).  

The public lecture was on the theme: “Towards a peaceful 2024 election in Ghana, collaboration among stakeholders in the context of emerging technologies”.  

Monetisation

Rev. Dr Deegbe warned Ghanaians of the dire consequences of monetising elections and its processes on development, underscoring the role of citizens in ensuring fair, accurate and transparent elections towards national development.

He urged stakeholders to educate the public on the negative effects of vote buying on the democratic governance of the country.  

Technology

Rev. Dr Deebge further entreated the Electoral Commission (EC) to leverage technology to conduct a free, fair and transparent general election this year.  
He proposed to the Commission to adopt a system to transmit election results right from the polling stations onto its website to enable citizens to monitor and participate in the process in real time. 

He said such a system would help to check the irregularities, which characterised the collation, transmission and announcement of election results and as a result, the EC would retain the trust of both the electorates and political parties.  

Beyond that, Rev. Dr Deegbe said technology should also be adopted to educate voters, enhance cybersecurity measures, and combat misinformation and disinformation, adding that the rise in the malicious use of social media and other pervasive uses of digital technologies remained a threat to the elections and democracy in Ghana and called for a concerted effort to address it.  

Rev. Dr Deegbe also urged civil society organisations to continue employing data analytics to ensure accuracy and transparency, while the country worked to introduce an electronic voting system in the future.  —  GNA