Implement State Funding Of Political Parties

The debate on state funding of political parties in Ghana has been re-ignited with some political think tank making a strong case for the implementation of the policy before the 2012 general election.

They urged the government to muster the political will and implement the policy immediately, pointing out that since political parties formed government, strengthening them through statefunding would ensure the creation of strong governments.

The Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Peter Mac Manu, the Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan, and the Administrator of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Mrs Jean Mensa, who shared these views with the Daily Graphic, urged the government to draw lessons from other African countries such as Kenya where $70 million had been budgeted to fund political parties under a newly passed Political Parties Act.

They were unanimous that the time had come for the state funding of political parties in Ghana, and dismissed suggestions that such a policy would lead to dissipation of national resources, given the flamboyant posture of some political parties.

According to them, state funding would rather ensure proper accountability by political parties, adding that considering Ghana’s pedigree as a bastion of democracy in Africa, it was necessary for political parties to be funded, particularly when less developed African countries had initiated that process.

The three personalities made the remarks following a discussion on the issue at the 2009 Netherlands Institute of Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) African Regional Programme (ARP) roundtable conference in Accra yesterday.

It emerged from the discussion that in Tanzania, for instance, political parties have been enjoying state funding over the past five years, while in Kenya and Tanzania, preparations were advanced to implement similar policies.

Sharing the Kenyan experience, the Secretary-General of the Kenya African Democratic Development Union (KADDU), Mr Julius Ochiel, said his country had just passed a Political Parties Act, which provided for the state funding of political parties.

He expressed the hope that the $70 million budgeted for that purpose this year, would be increased next year.

Mr Ochiel said in view of the requirement for accessing the funds, the number of political parties in the country reduced from 168 to 46.

Representatives of other African countries such as Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, also shared experiences on the state funding of political parties in their respective countries.

In Ghana, however, although the reception of the state funding of political parties had been very warm among key political actors such as the various political parties, the Electoral Commission (EC) and the IEA, the reception from the general public on the issue had been extremely cold.

Whereas the former contend that such a policy would help strengthen the country’s democracy, the latter argued that it would only present an opportunity for politicians to squander state funds.

Mr Manu said if multiparty democracy was the basis of socio-economic development, then it was worth sustaining political parties through state funding.

He said proposals made in the draft Political Parties Bill required that the funds be released to political parties based on the number of Parliamentary seats they secured after an election and that, coupled with strict supervision, would ensure proper accountability of the funds.

He expressed the conviction that the necessary ground work had been laid for the implementation of state funding of political parties in Ghana.

For his part, Alhaji Ramadan said Ghanaians needed to understand the enterprise of politics, indicating that political parties were so difficult and expensive to sustain and the lack of funding would only present a bad option nobody wanted.

He said political parties gave people options to choose and so funding them should not be considered as free money for them to waste.

Alhaji Ramadan said past and present governments had not had the political will to implement the policy because, perhaps, they thought doing so would give a lifeline to opposition parties.

According to Mrs Mensa, if other African countries such as Kenya had taken steps to implement state funding of political parties, it was difficult to understand why Ghana, which was considered to be a leading democracy in Africa, had not done same.

She said it was important for the state to understand that funding political parties would not be wasteful because they would be required to render proper accounts.

“I think that it should be done before 2012”, she said. Representatives of ruling and major opposition political parties from Ghana, Uganda, Malawi, Mali, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi and South Africa, are attending the three-day NIMD Africa Regional Programme roundtable to exchange ideas and experiences with the view to strengthening the institutional capacity of their respective parties.