Tightening Campaign Financing Regulation: A Necessary Consideration for the Constitutional Review Committee to Sustain Ghana’s Democracy

If I ever have a chance to suggest one thing to the Prof. H. Kwasi Prempeh Constitutional Review Committee in a brief, this is it: using the UK as a best-practice case study to learn from.

Every politician and political party’s chief dream is to secure and maintain power for as long as possible.

Thus, the means of financing political campaigns remain the biggest motivation to create, loot, and hoard from the public purse in Ghana, and if not regulated, could throw our infant democracy off gear.

The CDD’s report in 2022 on the subject, for example, revealed that it costs no less than $650,000 and over $100 million to get elected as an MP and the president of our republic, respectively.

The question remains: how and where do these candidates and political parties gather these substantial resources to fund their campaigns?

Currently, it appears that the unethical anonymous donations from the business community in return for tariff waivers, as well as stealing from the public purse, aren't enough. We are being ushered into a more dangerous era where galamsey kingpins are the kingmakers, which calls for the creation of a framework in the ongoing constitutional review to require periodic legislative instruments to address this issue.

Otherwise, we risk having drug dealers determine who becomes president, who serves in the legislature, and, to a large extent, control the affairs of the state someday, if that is not already happening.

In the UK, for example, the law provides a period, typically 365 days before a pending election, during which political parties and candidates' spending is considered within a regulatory period. They must comply with all guidelines and requirements for campaign financing and spending.

The regulation goes as far as capping and requiring reporting to the Electoral Commission on how much a candidate can spend within the regulated period on all forms of advertising—including electronic (TV, social media, and other online media), posters, leaflets, public meetings and rallies, transportation, etc.

For instance, a political party in the July 2024 election could spend up to about £1.5 million or £54,000 per candidate fielded in England, with regular reporting before the poll. This amount is about 1/5 and 1/10 lower in Scotland and Wales, respectively.

In addition, donations of all kinds to political parties or candidates, or loans beyond a certain threshold per year, should be disclosed along with the donor's identity. Northern Ireland has gone to the extent of defining entities that are considered permissible donors from which political parties can accept donations to avoid money laundering.

All these regulations and mechanisms have been put in place with periodic reports during and after campaign seasons to be compiled and published by the EC to ensure transparency, fair competition, and, above all, to ensure that those elected represent the will of the people and not kingpins.

All advanced democracies have regulations on campaign financing. Even the Republic of Kenya has such a regime.

Therefore, Ghana can’t continue to pride itself as a beacon of democracy in Africa if we continue to miss out on such important regulations to not only reduce political corruption but also prevent the tendency of having the state hijacked by foreign elements and local kingpins.

Solomon Atta
Policy Advocate
[email protected]