The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Asiedu Nketia has bemoaned the rising cost of accessing electoral office in the country.
He cautioned that the current situation did not augur well for the country’s democratic dispensation.
“What we cannot dispute is that there is a rising cost of accessing electoral office in the country which is very dangerous to our democracy,” Mr Nketia stressed.
A recent survey conducted by the Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana) revealed that at least US$100 million is needed for a person to have a shot at the Presidency and GH¢4million is needed to contest for primaries and Parliamentary elections.
In 2018 when the Centre conducted a similar survey, an amount of US$85,000 was pegged as the cost of running for parliamentary elections which also revealed nine individuals allegedly engaging in illicit activities to fund some political parties in the 2020 elections.
However, Mr Nketia indicated that “as the Chief Executive Officer of the NDC, I am unaware of illegal activities of financiers of political party elections, I do not know whether I will be able to actually say with some certainty because nobody comes to offer funding and tells you that his is engaged in human sacrifice or other criminal activities
“The person may come and offer issues and it is only when you come to power that somebody will come and say that some peoples businesses are illegal,” he stated.
Dr Kojo Asante, the Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at CDD-Ghana) intimated that his office would push hard until a good outcome was borne out of the study adding that the financiers funded political campaigns with the aim of making friends to ensure the sustenance of their businesses should the recipients of the funds win the polls.
He indicated that measures were going to be put in place to address the situation and hinted that the Centre had already put together a group because they wanted to initiate a draft road map.
“We think there is a window between now and 2023 where we can have a look at some short-term measures to begin to turn the corner and we are going to push very hard to get some action taken along the side,” Dr Asante pointed out. –myjoyonline.com
