Former President John Dramani Mahama has argued that state sponsorship of political party campaigns is the most viable and appropriate way for the country.

According to the former president, although funding political parties is a very expensive venture which can drain the resources of the country, the benefit it will inure to the democracy of the state is very enormous.

Among a number of benefits, the state sponsorship, Mr. Mahama argued will help to prevent party financiers from determining election outcomes and also ease the huge burden of the cost incurred by the various political parties in the country.

He further argued that 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.

Mr. Mahama made this case when he delivered a public lecture on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, at the UPSA auditorium on Political Party Financing.”

Addressing the gathering, he explained 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 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”.

“Viable political parties play a strong role in promoting democracy and sustainable development in any country. They perform key roles in the formation of government, develop leaders at various levels, and serve as a watchdog for incumbent governments. This is why we cannot continue to ignore the healthy development of our political parties, given the fact that these are also state political institutions,” he further suggested.

Admitting that the state is currently broke, he recommended that public funding of political parties be scaled up in the future supervised by an independent and credible institution to ensure fairness in the sharing formula.

“Ghana today is broke. International credit rating agencies have placed us in junk status. Additional state financing can therefore not be a viable option on the table. Even if that becomes an option in the future, I recommend that we put in place an explicit Public Funding of Political Parties Bill in a bipartisan and inclusive manner”.

“I further recommend that should public funding of political parties be scaled up in the foreseeable future, then, an independent and credible institution must be selected to administer the state resources advanced to political parties. In that regard, a sharing formula could be established to ensure fairness and specific disclosure requirements for beneficiary parties. This must be complemented by auditing and publication of party accounts”.