National Chairman of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has said Ghana’s political elections have increasingly become an “auction for the highest bidder,” as he explained the concerns that led to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the delegates system used in political party primaries.
According to him, the delegates system was intended to make representative democracy easier by allowing a smaller group of elected representatives to make decisions on behalf of a larger number of people.
However, he said the system had failed to work as intended because some delegates no longer represented the views and interests of the people who elected them.
Speaking on Onua TV’s Maakye programme on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, Asiedu Nketia said delegates were increasingly influenced by their personal interests and what they stood to gain.
“Representative democracy makes things easier because the numbers involved are not that many. But the challenge is that when people select you to represent them, the best thing is to speak the mind of those you are representing,” he explained.
He said some delegates, however, put their own interests ahead of those they represent, describing the situation as a betrayal of the people who elected them.
“Sometimes, their choices are neither theirs nor those they are representing, but are based on what they stand to gain. That means they have betrayed the people who sent them,” he stated.
Asiedu Nketia, popularly known as General Mosquito, said this was why some Ghanaians challenged the delegates system in court.
According to him, political elections had gradually become less about a candidate’s competence, experience and ability to serve, and more about the financial resources they could deploy to win the support of delegates.
“That is why some people took the delegates system to court. It had become a thing for the highest bidder. Elections are no longer about a person’s experience but have become an auction that goes to the highest bidder,” he said.
The NDC National Chairman said the practice had made it difficult for competent and qualified people who genuinely wanted to serve the country to emerge through the political system.
His comments follow the Supreme Court’s recent ruling to phase out the delegates system in political party primaries.
