State political party financing would stop our policy monetization – Dan Botwe

Daniel Kweku Botwe, Minister-Designate for Local Government, has advocated state support for political parties.

This, he said, may be the panacea of the monetization canker that has ravaged the political climate from the national level to the grassroots level.

According to him, political party state financing would mean better political groups, and representatives of Parliament would have a rather good partnership with their parties, resulting in a healthier Parliament and a far stronger government.

The call was made by Mr. Dan Botwe on Monday after his screening by the Parliament’s Appointments Committee.

He found out that, because of the state of political parties, there is monetization of Ghanaian politics.

He wondered how many political parties at the end of the year should file financial documents indicating their precise source of financing.

“They can not show their books when you take the two major political parties and how people pay dues in each constituency and how much they get.”

“So, where do they get all these funds at the end of the day to do the work they do?”

They would, though, be very powerful on their own if there is support for political parties. “This will reduce electoral monetization and create greater discipline and greater party control,” he said.

In such situations, according to him, democratic party offices would not depend on individuals and party governments in control, as is the case elsewhere.

Tanzania was listed by the former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as a prime illustration where Ghana might think about the mechanism of state-funding of parties.

He suggested that by the end of the year, political parties in Tanzania will have vast amounts of money to administer their projects, which would render them healthier and free of individual control.

The minister-designate argued that elections are held annually in Ghana, but political party offices are not powerful and financially stable.

“He said, “This is why they are unwilling to exert much power, which is why the mechanism contributing to high turnover in Parliament has been overwhelmed by monetisation.

Mr. Dan Botwe stated that through state support, in addition to the electoral primaries and votes, political parties might also be made to explicitly select a certain amount of persons for Parliament.

This, he added, would inspire persons to work more and would also enable Parliament maintain some of its hard-working House representatives.