EC CHARGED TO REPEAL POLITICAL PARTIES ACT OR ENFORCE THE LAWS

The Electoral Commission is being charged to either repeal the law on political party funding or ensure that political parties strictly adhere to it.

Mr Kofi Bentil, Vice President of IMANI Ghana made the call in respect to the latest allegation by AFAG that the NDC is being funded by a Chinese company called Huawei.

AFAG alleged that government indiscriminately continues to award contracts to Huawei Company in return for funding for its 2012 campaign activities, contrary to the political rules of Ghana.

The political parties act; Act 574 Section 23 (1) states that, “only a citizen may contribute whether in cash or in kind to the fund of a political party.

Section 24 of the same act states that “A non-citizen shall not directly or indirectly make a contribution or donation or loan whether in cash or in kind to the funds held by or for the benefit of a political party and no political party or person acting for or on behalf of a political party shall demand or accept a contribution donation or loan from a non-citizen”.

AFAG’S ALLEGATION

According to AFAG, the NDC has contracted the Chinese company to print campaign paraphernalia worth millions of USD.

Backing their claims with documents, AFAG also stated that the same company has been financing air trips of some NDC government officials and their family.

It also stated that the NDC government in a reciprocal gesture awarded the Huawei group “what could arguably go down as one of the juiciest contracts to be doled out by the current NDC government.”

“To place on record, the NDC government on 15th December, 2011 awarded the Huawei group the E-Government platform Project worth a whooping USD127, 500,000 million,” it said.

The group is therefore, calling on the Electoral Commission to per the Political Parties Act Section 25 (1 and 2) met out the appropriate sanctions to the party as well as the Chinese company.

IMANI’S STANCE; "REPEAL THE LAW OR ENSURE ITS ADHERENCE"

Speaking to e.tv Ghana’s host of Breakfast TV, Bismark Brown, the Vice President of IMANI Ghana, Kofi Bentil noted that it was not a hidden secret that political parties in Ghana are being funded by foreign companies or citizen.

However, he added that there was a cause for concern since when such happens there was the likelihood of those persons or group of persons having an influence in the governance system of Ghana.

He noted that AFAG’s move was in the right direction “but it is not enough and I think the support they have is evidence. In the court of law, documents like that do not constitute evidence. They have to go further to produce a few more things which will we’ll say are incontrovertible. So if the transaction can be traced and proven beyond doubt that this is a foreign company that they say are tantamount to funding the political party in Ghana then we can say that they have broken the law.”

Directing his next statement to the Electoral Commission, Mr Bentil said, there was the need for seriousness in the Ghana’s political scene.

He said, “We need to be serious if we want to repeal this law from our statutory books. I think it should be there because there is a good reason why. Ghana is a poor country and if we are not careful we will have people from elsewhere hijacking our whole political process. We must guard against people from somewhere else having a different agenda electing our president simply because he funded them.”

“But if we have the laws and we do not enforce them, there is no point. I am worried about the fact that the EC is not insisting on the political parties to give us their account and making sure that the rule in that political parties’ law is obeyed and also making sure that their breach sanctions are meted to whoever is breaching it,” he added.

He bemoaned the attitude on policy makers who establish institutions of enquiry or pass a law to solve a problem and not ensuring that those laws work.

Mr Bentil stated that, “I think the EC must do its job by making sure it is enforcing the law. Once the thing is established let’s go ahead and do what we need to do.”

“On the other hand, if we don’t think this is a law that will be obeyed or we don’t want to be obeyed as a country, if the political tradition or whoever is in power decides that look we will have this law but we will not obey, then let us find a way to sanitize that whole area of political parties funding.”

He called for a serious dialogue on the matter of political party funding in Ghana but cautioned that “the one who is able to give you money to prosecute your electoral agenda is likely to have a very serious influence on you. And that is what we as a country must be worried about.”