Ghana needs to adopt a public funding system for viable political parties – Mahama

He said the Public Funding of Political Parties Bill would have to be bipartisan and inclusive in order for all issues to surrounding political party financing be covered appropriately.

This he says is to prevent the current godfather-ism that is characterising Ghana’s political landscape.

Speaking during a public lecture on March 22, at UPSA auditorium in Accra, Mr. Mahama, a flagbearer hopeful of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) opined that, “on government support for political funding, some have argued that the only funding that may be advanced to parties and cannot be concealed in secrecy is public funding. This refers to government giving financial resources or indirect assistance to political parties. In the absence of such support, and given the huge cost of political activities, wealthy party financiers may take over as political godfathers who determine electoral outcomes and all that follows it”.

He was also launching his JM 2024 fundraising platform to help raise funds for his presidential bid in the upcoming general elections.

Speaking on party financing, he said, “I further recommend that should public funding of political parties be scaled up in the foreseeable future, then, an independent and credible institution must be selected to administer the state resources advanced to political parties. In that regard, a sharing formula could be established to ensure fairness, and specific disclosure requirements on beneficiary parties. This must be complemented by auditing and publication of party accounts.

“Ladies and gentlemen, even though I do not recommend additional state financing at this time of national economic meltdown, I accept a lot more needs to be understood regarding how political parties are financed because these could have implications on our developmental outcomes. We must understand how politicians finance their campaigns for office, and to whom they are indebted and are expected to repay.

Mr. Mahama admitted that the state is now broke and therefore financing political campaigns going into the 2024 general elections is not an option.