The National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Bongo, Charles Bawa Dua has denied accusation of vote-buying levelled against him.
Mr. Bawa Dua said although he gave delegates some monies, it was not an attempt to influence their decision in the ballot booth.
“What I know is that monies were provided for people to transport themselves to the center and for feeding, that I’m aware. And the mount a person got depended also on, where you came from. that’s from my side. For example, how many people you were transporting. If somebody was coming from let’s say Zorko, that’s quite distant from Bongo on his own motorbike,” he told James Nana Tsiquaye on Breakfast Today.
Due to the high levels of poverty in the area, the legal practitioner noted, most of the delegates are cash-trapped and therefore, unable to afford transport fares to the voting centre in the administrative capital.
In order that they were not left of the crucial decision making in the party in the constituency due to their circumstances, Mr. Bawa Dua said he arranged with his team to support each of them with cash amounts, ranging from GH₵50 to as much as GH₵500 to facilitate their transportation to the centre and their feeding for the day.
“So for us, it ranged between 50 cedis to, some few people got 500 cedis. It ranged between that. So some got 100, some 200 cedis, some will get 300 depending especially some people carried others in their vehicles and if you’re carrying about 4 or 5 people in your own vehicle, you’ll get 500,” he stated.
He argues “The thing is that we are dealing with a community where the majority of them are not employed. You have situations where some of the delegates don’t even have anything in terms of cash. So if you don’t provide the transport, you expect them to walk? You can’t expect them to walk so you must make the transportation available and like I said, we had similar experience in the constituency executive election. A lot of them went home without voting”.
He rejects assertions that such gestures amount to corruption.
Mr. Bawa Dua argues that it cannot be tagged as corruption since it was only meant to facilitate the transportation of electorates to the centre and ensure their welfare.
“You’re bringing people together, you have to make arrangements for their feeding, you have to make arrangements for water, you have to make arrangements for transportation. These are necessities that you must make arrangements for. I don’t see what’s corruption about that”.
The NDC’s parliamentary candidate said this in reaction to allegations of vote-buying levelled against him and the Member of Parliament for Bongo by their contender in the primary, Prof. Ephraim Avea Nsoh.
Prof. Avea Nsoh, who admitted giving delegates monies, accused the two of camping delegates and inducing them with goodies to vote in their favour.
The academic claimed that the two had camped almost all the delegates on the eve of the election in their respective residences, denying him access and showering them with huge sums of money that influenced their decisions in the primaries.
But Mr. Bawa Dua said what he did cannot be construed as corruption.
He also denied the allegation of camping delegates.
