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Money can't buy you this election - NPP to Mahama

The comments come on the back of a video which made the rounds recently showing President John Mahama allegedly sharing a paper-like material that looked like money to some traders in the market during a campaign tour in the Greater Accra region.

 

The camera did not capture what exactly the paper-like item was, but many believe that the president was sharing money with the traders.

The president has since denied the claims, saying he only gave money to a little girl who had lost her items after being pushed by the cheering crowd amidst the jostling during the campaign tour, the Daily Post Newspaper reported.

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But the NPP group, the Truth Forum have insisted that the president engaged in vote buying, leading to “waste of the county’s resources”.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday September 27, a member of group, Yaw Buaben Asamoah, said “the infamous picture of His Excellency President Mahama stuffing cash in the pocket of a chief on a street in the full glare of the public shows the depths to which the Presidency has, in desperation, sunk in pursuit of a phantom political desire. The real question, Mr President, is whether you are going to pay all of us to vote for you,” Mr Buaben asked.

He said the living conditions of Ghanaians have worsened “due primarily to the misalignment of resources away from essential services and priorities to high rent-seeking projects.”

According to him, Ghanaians “have learnt that the vote-buying cannot crowd out incompetent economic management, provide jobs for the jobless, reduce electricity bills, reduce excessive taxes, restore teacher and nurse trainee allowances, pay school fees, or ensure a functional NHIS.”

He argued that the poor use of public finances, if not checked, could throw government’s expenditure out of gear by the end of the 2016 elections.

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“Overspending in excess of GHS8.7 billion by the end of the year included but was not limited to unexplained expenditures of about GHS350 million from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, GHS650 million by the Office of the President or Office of Government Machinery and GHS60 million for the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, about GHS300 million at NADMO as well as GHS112 million on capacity building not to talk about some $100 million dollars improperly squandered at GYEEDA,” Mr Buabeng said.

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