President calls for system to monitor funds of political parties

President John Agyekum Kufuor on Monday called for a transparent system to monitor funds received by political parties from outside in the running of their activities.

Funding for political parties has been a very difficult element and in countries with small economies, the situation was precarious leaving the opposition parties to cope as best as they could, he said in a speech read for him in Accra at the opening of a three-day international conference on "Globalisation and political parties, the future of the Euro-African inter party dialogue".

The conference organised by Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF), in commemoration of its 125th anniversary would among other things discuss globalisation and politics, development of democracy in Africa, the role of political parties in democracy and Euro- African Co-operation as the answer to the challenges of globalisation.

The conference is to enable political parties to establish new relations with each other. President Kufuor said political parties had a responsibility of assisting one another and learning from each other's experiences.

He said participation was very crucial in a multi-party system of government, "but we can say the winning of power is even more important".

President Kufuor said the country's shared values of belief in individual liberty, free market economy and property and multi- party democracy had been successful and "there does not seem to be any ideological arguments to challenge these beliefs".