EC Must Restrict Campaigns By Political Parties – Mac Manu

The Campaign Manager for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2020 election, Peter Mac Manu, says it is time to look at political party financing again.

He also wants the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) to limit the period for political parties to campaign in the lead-up to elections, as a way to deal with the issues of spending.

“I think the Electoral Commission must play a role in this regard so that when the EC sets the candidate nomination timeline, that should be the timeline for active campaigning,” he told a high level post-election review workshop organised by the Coalition of Domestic Elections Observers (CODEO).

He said examples in some countries like Kenya could lead Ghana onto a path that can clearly limit political party spending and sanitize the environment.

On the issue of vote buying revelations by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) about the leading parties resorting to the use of mobile money to buy votes, Peter McManu said a similar survey by the Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana) has revealed giving out monies are no guarantees for votes in politics today.

“So we must be careful not to see delegates as anyone who would want to take money and vote for you. They are discerning, otherwise if you look at the results of the 2000, 2008, 2016 elections, you would find that the presidential candidates who won didn’t have that much resources but the programmes and policy promises was able to attract and win the votes.”

He added: “It should not always be assumed that you just give money to somebody in Ghana then he goes ahead to vote for you. Because the CDD pre-election survey in 2020 demonstrated that a large percentage of respondents said they would take the money and not necessarily vote for you because they have made up their mind.”