Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at CDD-Ghana, Dr. Kojo Pumpuni Asante, has called for a new approach to tackling issues of vote buying in by-elections.

According to him, to nip the issue in the bud, security agencies and the special prosecutor ought to develop creative ways to make the ‘business’ of vote buying unpleasant.

Speaking on PM Express from Assin North, he suggested that the special prosecutor and security agencies could get involved for example through the deployment of undercover agents to capture both buyers and sellers of votes.

“I think the key issue is that if we’re going to tackle this then we need to think differently about how we uncover that type of practice. There is a buyer and there is a seller of votes. Until we’re able to really make an example of some of the people it will be very difficult to nip it in the bud.

“So I really think that we have to find an antidote and one part of it is really making it a very unpleasant business to get into and that means the security agencies, particularly the special prosecutor must get involved whether it’s through undercover agents and so on,” he said.

His concern follows allegations of vote buying against the ruling New Patriotic Party in the just ended Assin North by-election.

While Dr. Pumpuni Asante noted that his outfit on the ground had not witnessed such acts occurring, some constituents had alluded receiving money from political actors to vote for their candidates.

Dr. Kojo Asante expressed worry that should state actors fail to stop the canker, it would promote the festering of corruption and further undervalue the country’s democracy.

“And yes, by-elections always draws in national figures, there’s a lot of money that’s coming from the national level , so maybe there’s a lot to really go around. But it increases the cost of elections, and it means that whoever comes out as the winner will likely go into governance process highly indebted and that person will find ways to recoup it and that increases the risk of corruption,” he said.