Senior Political Science Professor at the University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo, has reignited his push for public funding of political parties.
This, merged with a ceiling of expenditure by public office hopefuls, would help to check monetisation of elections in the country, an incubator of corruption, he said.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Tuesday, Prof. Gyampo noted that the funds should not come exclusively from the State; neither should it go to loose groups parading as political parties.
“I am referring to an arrangement that allows both the State and the public to contribute monies into a fund to finance the activities of not amorphous political groupings but political parties worth their salt that meet a certain stringent condition,” Prof. Gyampo said.
He added that a bill to the effect has even been drafted after engagements with the Atta-Mills administration in 2010 but it never saw light of day.
Addressing the ceiling of campaign expenditure of Member of Parliament (MP), Presidential and other political aspirants, Prof. Gyampo said a law which will impose punishments of up to and including disqualification would solve the display of opulence on campaign trails.
He also called for better education on even the existing laws and better implementation structures to solve the issue of vote-buying.
His comments follow the just-ended New Patriotic Party parliamentary primaries which were characterised by widespread reports of gift-giving by MPs and MP aspirants in a bid to influence the voting of delegates.
National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Sammy Gyamfi, at a press conference on Monday, said the NPP Primaries were rocked with vote-buying.
In the Assin North Constituency, Eric Amankwa Blay took back some 250 bicycles he shared to delegates prior to the elections after he failed in his bid to capture the party’s ticket.
He secured 44 votes as against the incumbent MP, Abena Duruwa Mensah, who polled 389 votes.
The defeated aspirant, who spoke to Adom News, said the motive behind the distribution of the bicycles was for campaign purposes.
He said for that matter, failure to endorse his candidature means you don’t like the bicycle.
According to him, the unit cost of the bicycle is GH¢300. Apart from the bicycles, Mr Blay claims to have shared GH¢200 and GH¢500 to each delegate and constituency executive to endorse his candidature but failed to do so.
“I’m not taking back the money but as for the bicycles, I need them back,” he said.