Former MP defends Baba Jamal, calls out hypocrisy in vote-buying allegations

Former Kumbungu Member of Parliament, Ras Mubarak, has publicly defended the newly elected NDC parliamentary aspirant for Ayawaso East, Baba Jamal, amidst allegations of vote-buying during the party’s recent primaries.

Baba Jamal, Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, has faced criticism after reports that he distributed items, including 32-inch television sets and other gifts, to delegates ahead of the vote.

In a strongly-worded social media post, Ras Mubarak dismissed the outrage as hypocritical, challenging other political figures to honestly deny they have never offered inducements to delegates.

“How many of our elected MPs, and elected party executives can honestly raise their hands and swear they’ve never induced a single delegate with money, gifts, or promises?” Mubarak questioned. “We all know the truth. The outrage only surfaces when the cameras are rolling and the spotlight is bright.”

The former MP argued that the focus should shift from selective condemnation to systemic reform. “Today we pretend to be angry because some got TV and others cash? We had it coming. Let’s stop pretending and start demanding real reforms that actually stop the cash-for-votes game once and for all,” he stated.

Mubarak proposed that the solution lies in overhauling the electoral system to make vote-buying impractical. He pointed to the NDC’s 2015 system, which allowed all party members in a constituency to vote for a parliamentary candidate, as a superior model that was abandoned instead of being improved.

“The only way to end vote buying is to make it impossible to buy votes. This is not rocket science,” he wrote, adding that the expanded electoral college was what enabled his own primary victory in 2015.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has since constituted a three-member committee to investigate the alleged vote-buying in the Ayawaso East primaries.

Ras Mubarak’s defense adds a new dimension to the ongoing controversy, framing it as a symptom of a deeply entrenched practice within Ghana’s political culture rather than an isolated incident.