Funding of political parties -JAK Calls For Debate

PRESIDENT John Agyekum Kufuor has invited political parties to participate in a national debate to determine a practical formula for the funding of their activities to sustain the country’s democratic process.

“This will be the best guarantee to sustain multi-party practice prescribed in the national Constitution to anchor democratic governance of the state,” he said.

President Kufuor, who said this when he addressed the national delegates congress of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the University of Ghana, in Accra last Saturday, therefore, urged the other political parties to participate in a public debate so that “we can all agree, in a bi-partisan fashion, on the legislation needed to achieve this”.

He said as a political party which has been in opposition for years since independence, “ we know the deprivations, the trials and tribulations and the frustrations of being in opposition in a poor country”.

“We have been at the receiving end of the evil practice of the winner-takes-all tendency where anybody not carrying the winning party’s membership card is denied the right to pursue his or her legitimate concerns. We know what it is like and we did not like it,” President Kufuor said.

He said it is the determination of his administration, to discontinue what he described as “the inimical practice and we do not want other parties outside government to suffer the same indignities,”.

President Kufuor commended activists of the party for their hard work and vigilance which enabled the NPP to wrest political power from the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

“Wasn’t it a year ago that we were written off and were being told, we were condemned to be in opposition forever? Let us say thank you to the many thousands of unsung heroes, the many who risked their lives , the many who gave their time, their money and their energy to make all this possible,” he said.

He charged them to redouble their efforts in encouraging more people, especially supporters of their political opponents, to join the party.

“Let us, therefore, go out there into the communities and take our message to the people and win souls for our cause. We need to convert more people. We must not reject people simply because they did not back us in erstwhile times,” President Kufuor said.

He said since the NPP is a liberal party, “ there must be room to welcome into our midst the new converts and supporters but of course, without compromising our basic beliefs and principles”.