The Executive Director of the African Center for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), Dr Rasheed Draman, has bemoaned the rising incidences of vote buying by politicians during elections.
Vote buying is a practice whereby contestants in an election use monetary or other forms of inducements to influence the electorate to vote in their favour.
Dr Draman said it is becoming obvious that people with fat wallets are winning the electorates with their moneys, while experienced and competent persons are set aside. A situation, he believes, does not bode well for our democracy.
“I can tell you on authority that some of the people who have decided not to contest, some of them lament that those who have come with big moneys to replace them, are people who perhaps are ill-prepared, with very little no education to go into parliament. You get them in there, and certainly quality is going to be affected.
If you look at the situation where new MPs when they come into the house, we have a lot of struggles, sometimes for the Speaker to have a quorum. People come in there, they get busy with other business, except the business of the House. You add that to a situation where we don’t have the kind of regular induction and preparation for new entrants into Parliament, it becomes complicated,” he explained.
Source: https://3news.com/featured/illiterates-will-be-elected-as-members-of-parliament-if-we-dont-stop-vote-buying-acepa-boss/
