Ghana needs timelines for party campaigns – Lecturer

Ghana needs to formulate laws to specify the time for political party campaigns, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Dr. Ransford Gyampo, has advised.

The Political Science lecturer from the University of Ghana argued that the current system which does not state when campaigns should start leads to parties focusing on winning the next election rather than on the developmental needs of the country.

He said the practice of canvassing for votes right after an election by the governing political party was wrong as that period should be dedicated to solving the country’s problems, which is the reason they were voted into office.

He told Ekow Mensah-Shalders on Class FM’s Executive Breakfast Show Wednesday 6th April that, “It seems to me that the campaign mode in our part of the world is too long. Political parties venture into campaign mode immediately one election is over, and our law is not so clear as to when campaigns should start."

According to him, in other countries like “Nigeria and Uganda, I think the time that political parties actually campaign is three months. If you go to the UK, it is just six weeks. But here, we have a long winding period so you can do campaigning in four years”.

He feels the situation does not help in developing the nation and advised authorities to review the situation.

Ghanaians will be heading to the polls on November 7 to elect parliamentarians and a president. Seven months ahead of the elections, political parties are already on a vigorous campaign to win votes.

Dr. Gyampo held the view that politicians mounting platforms with empty messages will not get the mandate of the citizens. To him, most Ghanaians will be looking at what policies and messages the various political parties intend implementing if given the opportunity to govern.

He pointed out that, “Without a message, you can’t win. I think Ghanaians gradually are moving out of the times when people would be bused to rallies, and they will play music for them and top politicians will mount platforms and rain insults without giving any message. People are not listening critically to make informed decisions."