The price of a seat: Financial barriers and the structural quality of Ghana’s Parliament
Picture a Member of Parliament handed an eighty-page bill on the morning of the vote. Somebody has to tell him what it says. If he cannot read it himself, that somebody will usually be a whip, a minister’s aide, or a person with a stake in the outcome, and the vote he casts will belong to them with his name attached.
The cost of running for a seat in Ghana's Parliament is prohibitively high, with the average expense for securing a parliamentary seat exceeding GH¢4 million. This systemic issue has led the Supreme Court to criticize the commercialization of internal party elections. The official filing fees for the 2024 primaries were GH¢78,000 for the NPP and GH¢45,000 for the NDC, which equates to 3,030 days of the national minimum wage.
While the Constitution does not require literacy or education for candidates, the parties impose heavy financial burdens that effectively exclude those who cannot afford them. The candidate with the most votes wins, often in strongholds where winning the primary translates to winning the seat. In the 2024 election, nearly half of the House members were new to Parliament, yet there is no guarantee that these newcomers are prepared for the work.
Written by urgent.news from MyJoyOnline Ghana's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
