Mr Frederick Adu-Gyamfi, the Director of Programmes and Operations at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), has advocated for a legislative Instrument (LI) to govern political campaign activities in the country.
He said the LI was required to regulate excessive funding of political campaign activities, abuse of incumbency and an overstretch of the Electoral Commission.
That would greatly safeguard electoral integrity and consolidate the gains of the nation’s fledgling democracy, he stated.
Mr Adu-Gyamfi made the call when speaking at the Bono Regional stakeholders’ forum on the draft model, proposed by the CDD-Ghana in Sunyani.
The CDD-Ghana in collaboration with the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) organised the day’s forum with support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
It sought to promote and deepen public understanding of the proposed bill, highlighting key provisions and to solicit citizens’ views and feedback to fine-tune the draft bill.
Mr Adu-Gyamfi observed political campaign periods in many African countries were clearly defined, saying that the situation in Ghana was however different.
He added that “continuous four-year cycle of political campaign activities in the country “doesn’t support democratic consolidation and national development”.
Mr Adu-Gyamfi indicated that regulating political campaign activities within a clearly defined period would limit excessive spending on those campaigns, and thereby “improve transparency by making it easier to identify campaign donors.”
“If we are able to regulate campaign activities within a specific timeframe, we can significantly cut down the amount of money spent, and ensure proper disclosure of funding sources and that will be a major achievement,” he stated.
Mr Adu-Gyamfi added that the reforms in the electoral process strengthened multi-party democracy, and urged Ghanaians to support the advocacy that would also help tackle electoral fraud like reported incidents of voting buying and selling.
Mrs Evelyn Opoku Tawiah, one of the participants expressed similar sentiment, however told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that stemming the menace of vote buying could only be achieved only if the electorate understood its effects.
She called for intensified education on civic education for the masses to understand their civic rights and responsibilities.