Ensure transparency in electioneering financing — Panellists
Speakers at a conference on political campaign financing have stressed the need to ensure transparency in electioneering activities.
They said the current situation, where political party financing was not transparent, threatened democratic governance, inclusive development and anti-corruption progress.
The conference was organised by Transparency International Ghana and the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), with the support of Transparency International Secretariat through the European Union Action Grant.
The speakers were the Executive Director of Transparency International Ghana, Mary Awelana Addah; the Norwegian Deputy Head of Mission, Kyrre Holm; George Valladares of Transparency International, Berlin, Germany; the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability (ACILA), William Nyarko; a lecturer at the London School of Economics, George Ofosu; the Project Director, Democracy Project, Dr John Osae-Kwapong, and the Director of Research at the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Samuel Appiah Darko.
Mrs Addah observed that “opaque political financing is increasingly recognised as a fundamental threat to democratic governance, inclusive development and anti-corruption progress.
She quoted a 2023 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, which said more than 25 per cent of illicit financial flows (IFFs) in Africa stemmed from political and electoral processes.
She said a 2023 CDD-Ghana study on the Cost of Politics revealed that aspiring Members of Parliament required more than GH₵4 million or $350,000 to successfully campaign.
That, according to her, was a staggering figure that excluded ordinary citizens, entrenched elite capture and undermined political competition.
Based on that, Mrs Addah said the country’s laws and institutional framework did not help matters as the Political Parties Act (Act 574) mandating political parties to submit audited account was weakly enforced, lacked transparency and was silent on real time donor disclosures, sanctions for campaign excesses and the abuse of state resources for political gain.
Trust in democracies
The Deputy Norwegian Head of Mission, Mr Kyrre Holm, mentioned how trust in democracies around the world was declining and people were increasingly believing that political influence was for sale.
He said elections were also shaped by “dark money rather than the public will.”
Correlation
For his part, Mr Valladares said it was evident from studies that political campaign financing correlated with corruption when done in the dark.
Mr Nyarko demonstrated how, in other African jurisdictions, government financing of political campaigns was used as a measure to get the accounts of parties audited, and additionally used in other ways to get parties to abide by the rules.
In his submissions, Mr Darko called for the separation of the regulatory functions of the EC from its refereeing functions, which included ensuring that parties functioned as such and ensured audited accounts.
However, in a sharp rebuttal, a Deputy Chairperson of the EC, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, said so far the commission had been performing its functions successfully and also building the capacities of parties.
Dr Osae Kwapong said it was necessary for the country to ensure transparency in its electioneering activities.
Writer’s E-mail: caroline.boateng@graphic.com.gh
