Legal practitioner and Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has weighed in on the Supreme Court’s decision declaring the delegate system used by political parties unconstitutional, warning that the ruling raises fundamental questions about democracy and party funding.
In a post on Facebook reacting to the landmark 5-2 majority decision, Bentil argued that representation is the foundation of democracy.
“All democracy is representative. That’s why we have parliament instead of all citizens meeting to make laws,” he wrote.
He stated that “A suggestion that representation is unconstitutional is quite weird.”
The Supreme Court ruled that political parties can no longer rely solely on a limited number of delegates to elect presidential and parliamentary candidates on Wednesday.
The Court ordered that all registered, card-bearing members of a party must be allowed to vote in primaries, effectively introducing a “One Member, One Vote” system for internal party elections.
The ruling means the NPP, NDC and all other registered parties will have to organize primaries involving millions of members instead of a few thousand delegates.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
