With 8 days to the Ayawaso East Constituency by-election, the Economic Fighters League (Fighters) has issued a blunt name to citizens: use the poll to punish any candidate implicated in vote purchasing, and ship the National Democratic Congress a message that cash can not acquire democratic legitimacy.

In a commentary launched on Monday, twenty third February 2026, the crowd described the third March ballot as greater than a regimen workout to fill a vacant parliamentary seat. It framed it, as a substitute, as a check of Ghana’s democratic persona.

“This by-election isn’t simply about filling a vacant seat. It is an ethical check. A last alternative for the folks of Ayawaso East, in whom precise energy is living, to manage justice by way of punishing all applicants allegedly complicit in vote purchasing,” the crowd stated.

“It is a referendum on whether or not our democracy will proceed to be auctioned to the very best bidder or reclaimed by way of the folks,” it added.

The Economic Fighters League’s intervention comes within the wake of one of the extensively condemned episodes of vote purchasing in fresh Ghanaian electoral historical past.

During the NDC’s interior parliamentary predominant hung on Saturday, seventh February 2026, on the Nima Cluster of Schools, viral movies circulated on social media appearing Mohammed Baba Jamal Ahmed distributing 32-inch tv units and eggs to delegates. Baba Jamal, the previous Ghana High Commissioner to Nigeria, due to this fact said making a gift of the candies, describing them as private items.

Baba Jamal gained the main, defeating Hajia Amina Adam, widow of the past due MP Mahama Naser Toure, whose demise on 4th January 2026 created the emptiness. Pre-primary polling by way of Global InfoAnalytics had proven Hajia Adam commanding 58 in line with cent delegate fortify, with Baba Jamal at 32 in line with cent.

The end result precipitated an instantaneous wave of institutional responses. Election Watch Ghana, in a commentary on ninth February, famous that whilst Section 33 of the Representation of the People Law, 1992, prohibits vote purchasing generally elections, the legislation does now not explicitly quilt interior birthday party primaries, making a loophole that the incident had uncovered in stark phrases.

The NDC moved all of a sudden to represent a three-member interior probe committee, chaired by way of former Information Minister Kofi Totobi Quakyi. President John Mahama recalled Baba Jamal from his High Commissioner publish in Abuja following the talk.

Civil society organisation Democracy Hub escalated the subject additional on sixteenth February by way of submitting a go well with on the High Court of Ghana in search of to disqualify culpable individuals. The go well with names the NDC as the primary defendant, the Electoral Commission as the second one and the Attorney-General because the 3rd. Democracy Hub is looking the court docket to quash the Electoral Commission’s popularity of Baba Jamal because the NDC’s parliamentary candidate and to restrain the Commission from accepting his nomination till a recent predominant is held. It argues that the February seventh predominant violated Article 55(5) of the 1992 Constitution and Section 9 of the Political Parties Act, 2000 (Act 574).

The Economic Fighters League’s Demand

Against this backdrop, the Economic Fighters League has taken probably the most direct step but, calling on citizens to not praise the NDC candidate on the polls.

“We subsequently name at the excellent folks of Ayawaso East to reject vote purchasing in all its paperwork. Reject inducements. Reject envelopes. Reject the politics of brief reduction and everlasting overlook,” the crowd stated.

“Specifically, we urge constituents to not praise the candidate of the National Democratic Congress on this contest. A decisive message should be despatched that cash can not exchange for responsibility, imaginative and prescient, and principled guidance,” it said.

The crew suggested citizens to fortify any of the opposite applicants at the poll who, in its overview, stand on integrity fairly than inducement.

“Let this by-election mark the start of political adulthood. Vote for another candidate who stands on integrity fairly than inducement. Let Ayawaso East show that dignity isn’t on the market,” it stated.

Five applicants are contesting the by-election. Baba Jamal Mohammed Ahmed of the NDC occupies the highest poll place, adopted by way of Ibrahim Iddrisu of the Liberal Party of Ghana, Baba Ali Yussif of the NPP, and unbiased applicants Mohammed Umar Sanda and David Kanor.

A Constituency Under the Microscope

Ayawaso East is an NDC stronghold within the Greater Accra Region, encompassing the densely populated communities of Nima, Maamobi and portions of Accra New Town, all of that have traditionally delivered vital NDC majorities. That background makes the by-election each high-stakes for the ruling birthday party and, within the view of civil society, a chance to reset expectancies about what is suitable in Ghanaian electoral politics.

The Economic Fighters League framed its enchantment in phrases that transcend the quick contest. “For too lengthy, #MoneyBasedPolitics has diminished our communities to marketplaces the place moral sense is traded for money, and poverty is weaponised all over elections. The cycle is acquainted: cash flows prior to balloting day, silence follows after IT, and the folks stay deserted,” it stated.

“The long run of our democracy is dependent now not at the measurement of marketing campaign budgets, however at the braveness of electorate,” it concluded.

The Electoral Commission has showed that the by-election will continue on Tuesday, third March 2026. The High Court go well with filed by way of Democracy Hub is but to be made up our minds.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by way of Readers and Contributors in this platform don’t essentially constitute the perspectives or coverage of Multimedia Group Limited.