The Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has condemned political party leaders for demanding for cars and land as requirements before allowing party members to contest in Parliamentary primaries.
The Suame MP, who was abhorred by such extravagant demands called for a paradigm shift and self introspection by political parties.
Speaking in a leadership engagement with the Parliamentary Press Corps on Wednesday, February 7, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said “you have people coming to you to tell you that buy a car for us before we vote for you. Especially the leadership of the parties, they ask for cars before they allow you to contest, even land…we should be real.”
In order to eliminate the threat of vote-buying, the MP proposed that voting rights should be given to all card-bearing party members.
“My own proposition is that the parties should introspect and perhaps scrap this thing as it is in established democracies…If we want to continue to live with this communist arrangement then, we will perhaps have to go further downstream to enable every card-bearing member of the party to vote.”
The Majority Leader also warned Members of Parliament who lost their seats in the primaries against apathy. He stressed the importance of continued engagement in parliamentary business.