ISSUED BY THE DEMOCRACY NOT FOR SALE PROJECT (JOYNEWS IMPACT MAKERS FOUNDATION, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ADOM BRANDS/MULTIMEDIA GROUP) KOFORIDUA  — FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2026

Preamble

On Friday, August 28, 2026, the Democracy Not for Sale project convened its third regional dialogue at Ascension Hall in Koforidua, bringing together representatives of local government, civic education, electoral administration, and human rights oversight to examine the growing influence of money in Ghana’s democratic processes. The forum was organised by the Impact Makers Foundation in partnership with Joy News and the Multimedia Group.

The dialogue was grounded in field survey data gathered by a research team on the ground in Koforidua from Monday, August 24, 2026, drawing on more than 300 interactions and 141 structured respondent interviews across the Koforidua metropolis, closely matching the region’s calculated ideal sample of 143, derived from the project’s national target of 1,600 respondents across 10 regions at a 95% confidence level and a margin of error of ±2.45%. This communiqué sets out, in full, the findings presented and the recommendations that emerged from the panel.

Survey Findings

Respondents were 55% male and 45% female — the most balanced gender split recorded under the project to date — with a youthful profile: 53% were aged 18–25, 25% were 26–35, 17% were 36–50, and 6% were 51 and above.

Awareness of Vote Buying

Koforidua recorded a high awareness of vote buying in the region. 24.5% of respondents said they had personally witnessed a candidate offering money or gifts for votes, and a further 74.8% had heard credible reports of it; only 0.7% reported neither witnessing nor hearing of it — meaning approximately 99.3% of respondents are aware of the practice.

By occupational group, the informal sector reported 39.66% personal witnessing and 60.34% reliable reports; professionals reported 33.33% and 66.67% respectively; religious and traditional leaders reported no personal witnessing but 100% awareness through reliable reports; and students reported the lowest personal-witness rate of any group, at 11.27%, alongside 87.32% reliable reports.

Money’s Perceived Influence on Election Outcomes

Unlike the clear generational pattern seen in the project’s Volta Region engagement, Koforidua showed no straightforward age gradient in perceptions of money’s electoral influence. 64.86% of 18–25 year-olds rated the influence as high (6–10) — the highest of any age group — followed by 62.5% among those 51 and above and 58.33% among 36–50-year-olds; only 26–35 year-olds, at 40%, fell below a majority. The belief that money determines electoral outcomes is thus broadly shared across the population rather than concentrated in any one generation.

Willingness to Vote on Ideas Over Money

Despite this, Koforidua recorded the strongest commitment to idea-based voting seen anywhere under the project: 90.9% of respondents said they would vote for a candidate with fewer resources but better ideas over a wealthier opponent, against 7% who said likely not and 2.1% who said it depends. This held firm across every age group: 90.54% among 18–25-year-olds, 85.71% among 26–35 year-olds, 95.83% among 36–50 year-olds, and 100% among those 51 and above.

Sources of Political Financing

Asked to name the primary hidden financiers of political campaigns, 78% of respondents pointed to government resources — the highest figure recorded for this question under the project — ahead of businessmen (37%), criminal proceeds (13%), and personal savings (8%); 6% said they did not know.

Confidence in Existing Laws

Large majorities across every age group said Ghana’s laws against vote buying exist but are not effectively enforced, rather than that the laws are inadequate: 94.59% among 18–25-year-olds, 80% among 26–35 year-olds, 91.67% among 36–50 year-olds, and 87.5% among respondents aged 51 and above.

Preferred Remedies — and a Warning Sign

38% of respondents identified strict jail time for vote-buyers and vote-sellers as the single most effective remedy, with the remainder spread across enforcing existing laws (11.90%), public education (10%), improving standard of living (10%), and changing societal mindset (4%). Most strikingly, 19% of respondents — nearly one in five, and the highest such figure recorded under the project — said they believed nothing can be done to stop the practice.

The Dialogue

The panel comprised: Nana Yaw Debrah (Presiding Member, New Juaben South Municipal Assembly); Ophelia Nana Yaa Ankrah (Regional Director, National Commission for Civic Education, Eastern Region); Edward Gyamfi (Deputy Director, Electoral Commission, Eastern Region); and George Adzovie (Chief Investigator, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice).

Political Branding as Permanent Campaigning

Nana Yaw Debrah reframed much of what is popularly called vote buying as political branding: the sharing of souvenirs and similar items during campaigns is intended to motivate turnout and build a candidate’s recognition, and this activity continues indefinitely after elections rather than stopping once votes are cast. He distinguished this from purely transactional vote buying, noting that some of the developmental work done by office holders genuinely benefits people and is not undertaken solely for electoral gain.

This framing helps explain the survey’s finding that 78% of respondents see government resources as the primary hidden financier of political campaigns: when branding and constituency-facing largesse are treated as continuous and election-independent, it becomes harder for citizens to distinguish legitimate government support from inducement timed to influence a vote.

The Erosion of Merit-Based Leadership

Ophelia Nana Yaa Ankrah of the NCCE said the survey findings reflect what her outfit sees on the ground, and that Ghanaian society is drifting from merit-based leadership selection. She illustrated this with a personal account: her own daughter had gone as far as skipping meals to save money toward a school prefectship campaign, despite being qualified for the position on her own merit, evidence, she said, of how deeply transactional political culture has filtered down even into school-level leadership contests among children.

She defended the NCCE’s own visibility, explaining that the Commission runs civic education through multiple channels on defined schedules, and that not personally encountering an NCCE engagement does not mean the Commission is inactive in the region; results take time.

She was equally candid that the societal damage already done cannot be reversed by a single round of civic education — an assessment that aligns closely with the 19% of survey respondents who said nothing can be done to stop the practice.

Delegate-Level Vote Buying and Its Consequences

Edward Gyamfi of the Electoral Commission explained that taking money from politicians actively discourages accountability once they are in office, and described a familiar pattern at delegate elections in which delegates are present at the venue but withhold their vote, waiting to first receive their expected share of money being distributed. He warned that where a heavily-spending candidate ultimately loses, the financial loss involved can breed post-election violence and place the broader integrity of elections at risk, and called for greater courage among citizens and officials to expose such wrongdoing.

He identified a specific structural gap: political parties are legally required to submit campaign spending accounts to the Electoral Commission, but the Commission does not currently have the mandate to investigate discrepancies that emerge in those accounts after audit — a gap he expressed hope could be addressed.

Constitutional Breach, Evidentiary Barriers, and the Whistleblower Act

George Adzovie of CHRAJ characterised vote buying as a breach of the Constitution and identified societal collusion  the shared willingness of givers and takers to keep the transaction quiet — as the central obstacle to gathering evidence for prosecution. He pointed to the existing Whistleblower Act as a legal protection already available to citizens willing to expose those engaged in vote buying, and argued that Ghana’s laws against the practice are already strong; what is missing, in his assessment, is the collaborative power of the public to make enforcement work. He added a blunt assessment of the underlying driver: economic hardship makes it difficult for many citizens to refuse money on offer, regardless of what they believe in principle about ideas-based politics.

Recommendations

• Grant the Electoral Commission, or another appropriately resourced body, the mandate to investigate discrepancies found in political parties’ audited campaign spending accounts, converting an existing disclosure requirement into a genuine accountability mechanism.
• Increase public awareness and use of the existing Whistleblower Act to help overcome the culture of collusion that currently shields vote buying from prosecution.
• Extend civic and ethics education deliberately into basic and secondary schools, addressing transactional political culture at its earliest points of formation given evidence that it now reaches school-level leadership contests among children.
• Establish clearer regulatory distinction between legitimate, ongoing constituency service and campaign-period inducement timed specifically to influence a vote, to make genuine vote buying easier to identify amid the broader practice of political branding.
• Pair stronger enforcement and expanded institutional authority with sustained attention to the economic hardship that drives citizens to accept inducements, recognising that reform on the supply side (political ambition, weak accountability) must be matched by relief on the demand side (poverty and economic pressure).

Conclusion

The Koforidua dialogue surfaced a distinctive and urgent finding: a public that is more informed about vote buying, and more committed to voting on ideas rather than money under the Democracy Not for Sale project — yet also more resigned to the belief that nothing can be done.

Closing that gap between appetite for reform and confidence in reform will require the concrete institutional steps identified by the panel: expanded investigative authority for the Electoral Commission, active public use of whistleblower protections, civic education that reaches down to the school level, and sustained attention to the economic hardship that makes inducements hard to refuse.

The Democracy Not for Sale project will continue its engagement across Ghana’s remaining regions, building an evidence base to inform national dialogue and policy reform toward strengthening the integrity of the country’s democratic processes.

For more information on the Democracy Not for Sale project, contact the Impact Makers Foundation.