NDC, NPP relying on contractors for survival – PPP Chair

The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the largest opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) are surviving the demanding nature of contemporary politics in Ghana through the benevolence of individuals and institutions they awarded contracts to when they were in power, the national chair of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond, has revealed.

According to him, this situation has unduly given the two leading parties the edge over all the other political parties who are struggling to raise funds to procure logistics and resources aimed at spearheading their agenda ahead of the November 7 presidential and parliamentary elections.

“…The NPP and the NDC have been in government, they have been able to rely on those that they have given contracts and things like that to fund their activities, but we will still want to find out how they are raising funds because that is what is required by the Political Parties’ Law,” he said.

Mr Brew-Hammond told Emefa Apawu on Class FM’s ‘505’ News Tuesday June 14 that, at the moment, the PPP, just like the other smaller parties, was struggling to raise funds to actively engage in political activities ahead of the elections.

“It is very difficult, there are no two ways about it, we have a lot of demand coming from many of our disadvantaged members who want to support the party and are not able to do what they can because we have not been able to raise enough [money] to give to them. I get a call from the Sampa chairman (from the Brong Ahafo Region) almost every day [that] he needs a vehicle,” he said.

“We are trying to look around to see those who can support us but so far we have not been able to get enough to provide the chairman of Sampa a vehicle but we hope that along the way, as members contribute, we might be able to afford to get them a motorbike, something that will enable them to go around.

“We [PPP] are here to stay… we are still trying to raise funds as much as we can and, when we do, we will be able to provide them the vehicles.”