Minority parties struggling to fund activities

With barely a year and a half to go for the December 2020 general election, the two big political parties in Ghana, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), have started preparations, with the NPP having completed its constituency, regional and national executive elections.

The NDC has also begun preparations, having completed its constituency level elections, with nominations recently closed for its regional elections.

However, for most of the minority political parties, their activities have been on the quiet, with a good number of them citing lack of financial resources as the main reason for not putting out a public show of their activities.

PNC

When the Daily Graphic spoke with the Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Mr Bernard Mornah, he said the party was going for a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on August 4, 2018, and that part of the agenda for that meeting would be to set a date for the national delegates congress.

Per the constitution of the party, he said, there was the need to form a congress committee and that committee would look at means of mobilising resources for the various conferences starting from the polling station level and ending with the national delegates congress.

He was, however, of the view that even though the party was not late in its schedule, a proposal for an early congress would not be a bad idea.

GCPP

The First National Vice Chairman of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Mr John Amekah, said measures had been instituted under which the constituency elections were being held across the country.

He explained that unlike the practice where all the constituency level elections were held on the same day, the party had drawn a programme where those elections were taking place one after the other.

So far, he said 30 of such constituency elections had been successfully held nationwide, adding that the regional elections would take place next year, followed by the national elections in December 2019.

“Currently, the constituencies are organising themselves and holding the constituency elections one by one and not wholesale as the NPP and NDC did because of funding constraints,” he said.

PPP

Mr Paa Kow Ackon, who is in charge of communications for the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), said the party had started its constituency elections and had done a number of them in the regions and that if they were able to hopefully complete by the end of September, then the party should be able to elect regional and national executives.

“We are not getting the needed media mileage as you would find with the NDC and NPP but we are on the ground and the elections are being conducted. It takes some effort and we must make sure that all the preparations are thorough. That is what we are doing now,” he said.

NDP

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Mr Mohammed Frimpong, told the Daily Graphic that the NDP was undertaking its activities on the quiet and that unlike a party in power, it could not boast adequate resources to undertake its activities.

He said the party was organising itself in order to bring some individuals with the financial capacity on board to fund the party’s activities.

He added that the NDP national executive had embarked on a nationwide tour with the aim of ensuring that momentum was generated on the part of party faithful to come onboard to inspire the party’s activities.

He said so far no clear timetable had been set for elections at the various levels, citing the fact that such activities were resource-intensive.

APC

The leader and founder of the All People’s Congress (APC), Mr Hassan Ayariga, said the National Executive Committee of the party met on July 14 and decided on a number of activities to be carried out and completed latest by December 2018.

Among them were to issue new party members and existing ones with biometric membership cards across the country, and also establish new party offices and maintain existing ones across the country.

The NEC, he said, also agreed to establish TV and radio stations in order to market the party and discuss its policies with the people of Ghana in addition to procuring and operating a mobile TV station to support party activities.

LPG

The Founder and Leader of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Mr Kofi Akpaloo, said the party was putting its act together to hold its regional congress in September to be followed by a national delegates congress in October.

He said the party had now completed its constituency-level elections which started in January 2018 and ended in June 2018.

He said there was the need to put strong structures in place in spite of financial challenges but remained optimistic that the plans of the party were on course and that percentage-wise, the party had completed about 60 per cent of its activities.

CPP

The Second Vice Chairperson of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Hajia Hamdatu Ibrahim, said the performance of the party in the 2016 general election had necessitated a complete change of strategy.

She said it was difficult to appreciate that in a country with more than 29,000 polling stations, the total number of votes garnered by the party was less than the number of polling stations, meaning the party failed to secure a vote per polling station.

In view of that she said the Central Committee met and agreed that all constituencies should come out with a roadmap, and that hopefully by the end of the year the party would finish its constituency and regional elections.