Co-Chair of Citizens Movement Against Corruption, Edem Senan has stressed the need for a political party financing law in Ghana to curb the excessive spending by individuals during elections in the country.
According to him, the current trend where Presidential candidates are required to spend up to US$ 100 million during one election,as reported by the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) was outrageous and “we need to start questioning where they’re getting those moneys from”.
Recent research conducted by CDD-Ghana revealed that presidential candidates in Ghana needs at least US$100 million to win an election.
The findings of the study also show that parliamentary candidates need at least GHC4 million to win a seat.
Reacting to these revelations via a telephone interview with Edward A. Ken-Zorre of Mynewsafric.com, Edem Sananu explained that, a political financing law will dictate the level of support an individual or an organization can give to a political party and anybody who put themselves up for election into public office, since the financiers may turn around to demand contracts in event the person or party they support wins power.
“We definitely need a political party financing law that will give ceilings to the level of support an individual and an entity can give to a political party so that such individuals or entities cannot influence the decisions of the President or where the government is compelled to find them contracts”.
For Mr. Senanu “This will also now compel political parties to think through the kind of manifestos they put out there and it will be the attractiveness of the content or the innovativeness of the manifesto that will compel people or entities to want to contribute or finance the campaign of political parties”.
Edem also indicated that “we currently have a disconnect between fiscal policy and manifestos and that is not helping us which also tells you that we have a political party financing crises that we need to deal with urgently”.