The National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for the Madina constituency, Francis Xavier Sosu, says he spent about GH¢ 300,000 on his campaign ahead of the party’s parliamentary primaries held last Saturday.
He said the funds were expended on items including feeding and transportation for delegates, fuel for campaign travels among others.
“For now, I can’t say for a fact but I’m sure it should be somewhere over GH¢300,000. That is from somewhere July 2018 till now. It may be more, I am yet to reconcile…. Generally, the key elements include posters, branch visitations and most likely you would have to convey them; cost of transportation, feeding, cost of buying fuel for your team and sometimes petty requests coming from delegates; you take care of medical bills, school bills and so on,” Xavier Sosu said.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, he stressed that such expenditures cannot be described as vote-buying since they do not have any direct link with the eventual choice of delegates on the day of voting.
He said his gestures and the corresponding expenditures could best be described as a show of “love” and “care” for delegates and constituents he sought to lead.
“I think it is about showing care, love and concern for the people that you seek to lead. I think vote buying has to do with things that are directly connected with the elections where you directly give them something to influence the mind of delegates for that purpose,” he told Umaru Sanda Amadu, host of Eyewitness News on Monday.
Francis Xavier-Sosu was victorious in Saturday’s parliamentary primaries with 662 votes against his opponents, Sidi Abubakar, Ibrahim Faila Fuseini and Haija Rukaya, who had 480, 219 and 16 votes respectively.
Although the polls in the Madina constituency like other parts of the country was generally peaceful, there were claims of vote-buying in some constituencies, with the former president and founder of the NDC, Jerry John Mahama urging delegates during the polls not allow money influence their choice of candidates.
But Francis Xavier-Sosu denied supporting delegates in any way on the day of elections saying that his election was purely based on his past gestures in the constituency.
“I never, on the day of election, paid, not even ‘T&T’ to any single delegate but I still won,” he said added.
Source: citinewsroom.com
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Kwame! You got it!
MY BROTHER, THE IDEA IS NOBLE BUT THE IMPLEMENTATION MAY BE IMPOSSIBLE. THE CHIEF REASON IS THAT THE PERSONNEL IN THE BODY YOU HAVE CITED MAY BE MORE CORRUPT THAN THE POLITICIANS. INSTEAD OF DOING THEIR WORK, THEY MAY END UP TAKING MONEY FROM THEM AND MAKE THE WHO EXERCISE A COS 90 JOB. THE POLICE, CIVIL SOCIETY INSTITUTIONS AND OTHER SERVANTS MAY NOT BE PATRIOTS INDEED TO PURSUE THIS CAUSE. BUT LETS TRY AND SEE....... WHO KNOWS?
You've made a sensible argument. Our CID department is not working. They must start inviting these people one by one and ask them how they make their money and reconcile with their tax returns. They cannot run from tax returns. Their tax returns would justify their sources of finance.
This is where corruption begins in my opinion. Where did he get that money from? If it is personal money, does his worth matches that amount? how much has he paying as taxes to the state? If people donated to support him, who are they? how much did each individual donate? Can the amounts be reconciled with their tax returns? How much money came into the kitty and how much did he spend on the campaign? Indeed, if he spend more than 300,000 cedis on only the primaries then how much is he going to spend on the main general elections. until we begin to hold politicians accountable on their campaign funds, the fight against corruption will be in vain. I am sure he will definitely seek to recoup his money when he becomes a political office holder. My concerns are not only about Francis but all politicians. It is about time CDD, IFS,IEA, ISSER, and co sponsor a bill to put all campaign funds under public finance, audited by the auditor general department and not any quake auditor, and EC must also be part and enforce the auditing and submission of audited accounts of political parties and also parliamentary and presidential candidates. Enough of this! #campaignfundarepulicfunds