As part of efforts to deepen democracy and enhance good governance, STAR-Ghana Foundation in collaboration with Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and Elections Community of Practice and Learning (ECOPL) held a National Dialogue on Reforming Political Campaign Financing in Accra on Tuesday 25^th August 2020.

The dialogue follows three zonal discussions of the national campaign financed dialogue series held at Tamale, Kumasi, and Takoradi aimed at engaging citizens and key stakeholders to discuss and deliberate on campaign finance reforms to help safeguard the country’s democracy.

In an address, the Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation, Alhaji Ibrahim – Tanko Amidu commended political parties for their contributions towards the successful take-off of the dialogue series noting that the event will help step up the country’s democracy.

He said:

“Political campaign financing is a challenge and must be well addressed with the needed reforms to enable the government to come up with a clear-cut road map towards effective good governance and nation-building.”

Dr. Esther Ofei Aboagye, the Governing Council Chair of STAR Ghana Foundation said the practice of political party financing is deeply entrenched and however urged parties to have their accounts audited as part of the reforms to bring sanity in excessive spending.

In a presentation on the topic, Democracy and Political Finance in Ghana Today – Facts, Challenges and Best Practices, Prof. Kwasi Prempeh, Executive Director of CDD – Ghana indicated that the practice of political financing have direct impact on corruption since the candidate will recoup the money spent on activities while in office, adding that it also brings to the fore money laundering and electoral violence and chaos over sharing of money by party faithfuls and sympathizers.

In a panel discussion on the topic: “How the status quo hurts the people and our democracy, the case for urgent reforms”, panelists called for swift reforms in campaign finances and called on key stakeholders in the political arena to engage government on enforcement of laws governing campaign financing and advocate for its implementation.