Speaking during a public lecture on March 22, at UPSA auditorium in Accra, President Mahama NDC opined that, “on government support for political funding, some have argued that the only funding that may be advanced to parties and cannot be concealed in secrecy is public funding.
This refers to the government giving financial resources or indirect assistance to political parties. In the absence of such support, and given the huge cost of political activities, wealthy party financiers may take over as political godfathers who determine electoral outcomes and all that follows it”.
According to him, viable political parties play a strong role in promoting democracy in the country hence the need for the state to incur some of their expenditure in the future.
This discussion has come up many times in this 4th republican dispensation. As a nation, we are yet to find a conclusive converging point. The funding of political parties sounds like an interesting idea. Reading from my favorite political scientist, Prof. Gyimah Boadi, and other connoisseurs of the realm, I believe the funding of political parties will go a long way to level the playing field among political parties and strengthen the hand of the state in the regulation of the role of money in our politics. This I believe will also help reduce the extent of incumbency abuse and profligacy we see with ruling governments in election years.
Like public and quasi-public agencies such as the media, the 1992 Constitution places significant obligations on them without clear funding. The same applies to political parties. There is no clear idea of the funding of their activities.
Even those whose constitutions explicitly indicate that their activities and expenditure like NCCE and CHRAJ have weakened and remained inactive because of a lack of funds. It is almost chronic. Judging from this history, is our country financially positioned to fund political parties? I do not think so.
These parties already have a mechanism to generate funds for their activities. The state must simply police the activities of political parties, tighten the requirements and laws on the disclosure of funding by both the donor and the recipient, and institute rigid enforcement of sanctions against failure to disclose or inadequate disclosure of giving and receiving.
Here, let us pause and peruse this researched feedback from the CDD and Afrobarometer,
In 2005, the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) undertook a project on this topic.
1) When asked, “do you Support State Funding of Political Parties in Ghana?” fifty-three percent (53%) said yes; forty-three (43%) percent said no, and four (4%) percent said ‘don’t know.’
2) When asked to state their agreement or otherwise to the following statement “The State should fund political parties” fifty (50%) percent agreed, forty-nine (49%) percent disagreed.
3) When asked “Would you be willing to pay an additional tax (direct/indirect or special tax to support political parties)?” sixty-nine (69%) percent said no, thirty-one (31%) percent said yes, while one (1%) percent said don’t know.
4) When asked to state their agreement or otherwise to the following statement “Political Parties should raise their own funds”, seventy-five (75%) percent agreed, twenty-two (22%) percent disagreed, and two (2%) said ‘don’t know’.
In essence, there was some support for state funding of political parties, but citizens were not willing to pay for it perhaps because of the view captured in the survey that political parties should raise their funds.
17 years later, Afrobarometer (Round 9, 2022) asked Ghanaians their views on this subject.
In response to the statement “Please tell me whether you disagree or agree with the following statement: To curb the current trend in Ghanaian politics where parties and candidates spend so much money during party primaries and national elections, the government should provide direct support to political parties during election campaigns” twenty-seven (27%) agreed, sixty-seven (67%) percent disagreed, four (4%) percent were neutral while two (2%) percent answered ‘don’t know’.
When asked “If the government decides to provide direct support to political parties, how willing are you to pay a special levy or additional tax for this purpose?” sixty-seven (67%) percent said not at all willing, twelve (12%) percent said not very willing, thirteen (13%) percent said somewhat willing, only six (6%) percent said very willing while two (2%) percent said ‘don’t know’.
When asked “If the government provides direct support to political parties, which of the following would be the best approach” the top three (out of seven) were as follows –
1) Government should not support political parties (29%)
2) Government provides an equal amount of free advertising on state media for every eligible parties (20%), and
3) Government provides direct financial support to every eligible political party (17%)
There is very little support among Ghanaians for state funding of political parties and the feedback from these research proves the points I raised in paragraph 3.
We simply and evidently do not have the means now though it may perhaps give us a strong fist to properly scrutinize the activities of these political parties.
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