Some of the political stakeholders have raised the concern that the rising trend of money in the country’s political party system has contributed to the reduction of women and youth’s involvement in politics and has affected the process of choosing leaders on the basis of merit.
They raised their concern on the issue in a panel discussion at the launch of a research report titled:' The Price to Participate: How Money in Politics Undermines Women and Youth Political Participation in Ghana’, by the Gender Center for Empowering Development (GenCED).
The speakers included a former Adentan parliamentary candidate and New Patriotic Party (NPP) communications member, Akosua Manu; a member of the communication team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Frank Asare, and a former Chairperson of the Convention People’s Party, Hajia Hamdatu Ibrahim Hussain.
Impact
According to Frank Asare, the monetisation trend has eliminated loyalty and service in Ghana’s political parties, and this has caused a feeling of disappointment in the minds of the party activists.
“It doesn’t matter your contribution to the party. It doesn’t matter your commitment. It doesn’t matter your loyalty. When you show up to contest for a party position, people look at how deep your pocket is.”
If this persists, it will kill political party activism and reduce the rate at which young people would want to participate in active politics,” he said.
Ms Manu said women faced both visible and hidden financial barriers that made political participation difficult.
She added that aside from the high cost of filing fees, urban constituencies imposed even higher costs through media engagements and social media campaigns.
“Beyond the fees that you pay, beyond your campaign day to day, be it security, food, your teams, volunteers, the hidden cost is the personal obligation that your voters or delegates will put on you,” she said.
Dr Akagbor said politics had shifted from a development-oriented process to a business practice, adding that this shift undermined democratic values at both party and national levels.
“The sad reality is that politics has been commodified, given that the one with the most resources gets the upper hand, and this excludes people who have the best ideas,” he said.
Reforms
The speakers, however, called for party reforms, legal changes and strict adherence to affirmative action measures to restore inclusion and credibility in Ghana’s political system.
Hajia Hussain suggested that political parties needed urgent reforms to reverse this trend.
She said parties should remove filing fees for women and youth, and align internal processes with the Affirmative Action Law.
She called for sustained education and awareness to help parties broaden participation and leadership opportunities.
For her part, Mrs Nutakor said the EC acted only as a referee in the political process; hence, it lacked the legal authority to regulate party filing fees.
She added that a constitutional review could grant the authority the mandate to take the necessary remedial steps.