Deputy General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has criticised the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for maintaining Baba Jamal Mohammed Ahmed as its candidate for the upcoming Ayawaso East by-election despite allegations of vote-buying during the party’s parliamentary primary.

Speaking in an interview on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Wednesday, Haruna Mohammed described the NDC’s actions as an attempt to “play on the emotions” of Ghanaians, insisting the party lacks the resolve to deal with electoral misconduct.

He accused the NDC of shielding its candidate instead of applying sanctions.

“The party itself [NDC] has become a clearing agent. Knowing very well that their constitution does not give them the power to withdraw somebody's election or whatever, they went ahead to do what they did,” he said.

Read also: NDC sticks with Baba Jamal for Ayawaso East By-election despite vote-buying probe

His comments come after the NDC announced that it would proceed with Baba Jamal as its candidate, citing constitutional and time constraints.

The decision was announced by NDC General Secretary Fifi Fiavi Kwetey following a meeting of the party’s Functional Executive Committee, which considered a report from a three-member investigative committee set up to probe the alleged vote-buying incident.

Mr Mohammed argued that the entire investigative process was meaningless and only served to legitimise vote-buying.

“What is the use? What they did, the letter they sent is all useless. And we are back to number one — encouraging people to do vote-buying,” he stated.

Mr Mohammed maintained that vote-buying is a criminal matter and should be handled by law enforcement rather than internal party committees.

He questioned the NDC’s decision to conduct its own probe, describing it as a “useless adventure” that would produce no meaningful outcome.

“For us as NPP, we have said that this is a criminal matter. When it happens, we say the Ghana Police should go on and do their investigations.”