Create a Common Fund for political parties - Bolga Forum

Bolgatanga Sept 8, GNA - Participants at a forum on political party financing in Bolgatanga on Wednesday suggested that a Common Fund be instituted for financing political parties in the country.

They said the Fund could be built on donations and contributions from donor agencies abroad, NGOs and private companies in Ghana. The forum, organised by Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) attracted 40 participants from the civil service, NGOs and political parties in the Upper East Region.

Other source of funding for political parties they said could come from a small percentage of the national budget and the District Assemblies Common Fund.

The participants deliberated on conditions for funding political parties, corruption in politics, challenges facing political parties, and the roles of political parties in a democratic state.

The participants expressed concern at the rate of corruption in party politics and called for modalities to be put in place to ensure accountability and a check on bribes that are disguised as gifts and given by some parties to the people to lure them to vote for them. They urged parties to educate their supporters to understand the need for them to pay their dues and other lenis that would help sustain their programmes.

They also called on the government to support the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) so that they could effectively educate the people on the various aspects of democracy and politics. The forum was facilitated by Alhaji Alhassan Abdulai of the Islamic Council for Development and Humanitarian Services and Mr Franklin Oduro, CDD executive member.

They said four such for a would be organised by CDD in various parts of the country to give civil society and political parties the opportunity to express their opinion on when and how political parties in the country should funded.