The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), and the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) have launched a project to monitor abuse of incumbency and political corruption during the electioneering process.
The project is to strategically leverage both the traditional media and digital platforms to raise awareness about issues surrounding campaign financing and the abuse of state resources.
The monitoring mission will track expenditures, abuse of state resources, and vote buying in the December election to generate additional empirical data on campaign financing activities and to increase public awareness of the role of money in elections and current campaign financing regimes.
Speaking at the launch, Executive Director of Ghana Integrity Initiative Mrs. Mary Awelana Addah said the abuse of state resources to the advantage of incumbent governments during elections is common in Africa, including Ghana.
According to her, the illegal use of government vehicles or buildings by the ruling party’s election campaign team, manipulation of state media, and use of security agencies to intimidate opponents all constitute electoral corruption and must not allow to continue.
Director of Programs CDD-Ghana Mr. Frederick Adu Gyamfi believes the rising cost of party and campaign financing has worsened over the last three decades.
He said in recent years, Civil Society Organisations (CSO) working in the anti-corruption election Integrity and governance space have called for comprehensive reform of party and campaign financing regime in Ghana.
“This must stop. You see most of them turning public functions into campaign events, the use of state-owned vehicles for individual partisan campaigns, and the use of official hours to promote partisan, among others. “
The project intended to monitor 67 constituencies on abuse of state resources, and 41 constituencies will be monitored on campaign financing.
Story by: Osman Abadoo/Radiogoldlive.com
