Politicians sack DCEs to plough back high campaign costs – Domelevo

Daniel Yao Domelevo, the Auditor General has stated that when politicians win the general election, they quickly want to recover the huge cost of campaigns through the district assemblies, hence they tend to dismiss District Chief Executives so that they can have room to operate.

“If it costs them [politicians] so much to come into public office, it stands to reason that they have to pay back and how do they payback?” Domelevo said at CDD-Ghana’s national forum on campaign finance. “That is why they kick all the Chief Executives out and put their people there and all the procurement go one way. I buy the idea that we have to regulate the funding [of political parties], and the do’s and don’ts of what they do with the money.”

The cost of elections in Ghana has been a major point of focus for political pundits with many people apprehensive about the cost of running election campaigns in the country.

The CDD, in 2018, indicated that the cost involved in winning an election shot up by 59% from 2012 to 2016, potentially costing as much as $85,000 (GH¢403,750) to contest primaries and parliamentary elections.

The CDD-Ghana has observed that the high cost of election campaigns have the potential to marginalize experienced persons from offering themselves for elected office and consequently weakening the democratic credentials of the country.