Election 2020: John Mahama and NDC launch online platform to solicit for funds ahead of December polls

Flagbearer of Ghana’s biggest opposition party and leader of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama, has together with party apparatchiks, launched an e-payment platform to receive financial support in the run-up to the general elections in December 2020. This NDC fundraising strategy aims at getting every one on board to support the party.

The launch which took place on Thursday, January 16, 2020, at the La Trade Fair Center in Accra saw attendance from a number of party faithful who went to throw their support behind the flagbearer.

According to former president John Mahama who spoke at the launch, the NDC fundraising move was to solicit for financial support toward the NDC’s campaign and also to open up the party’s books for scrutiny as far as transparency of how political parties funded their campaigns was concerned.

The payment system, according to reports, would help the National Democratic Congress mobilize funds through payment of dues and also cash in on some benevolent donations in the parties bid to topple the Akufo-Addo administration come December 2020.

Present at the launch of the online payment platform were top party members including former appointees of the erstwhile Mahama administration, national as well as regional executives of the party.
Mr Mahama used the opportunity of the launch and the gathering that had amassed to make known a few of his updated campaign promises which would be fulfilled come January 7, 2021 when he is sworn in as president.

READ: Kelvin Taylor in Trouble as Angry Judge issues arrest warrant

As party of his speech, former president Mahama indicated that he was going to bring back the automatic teacher promotion system and also do everything in his power to ensure that the teacher licensure examination was cancelled.

He noted, “We will bring back the automatic promotion of teachers. And cancel the teacher licensure exams. They say that we introduced the licensure exams; to be clear we never sort to use exams as a means of licensing teachers.”

John Mahama and the NDC are gearing up for what would be a tough election come December 2020 and have already hit the ground running with their NDC fundraising strategy and campaign messages.

This move by Mahama and the NDC is not the first time a political party in Ghana, especially the party in opposition to launch a system that would call for donations towards the party’s cause in an upcoming election.

It would be recalled that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) when in opposition in the run up to the 2016 general elections, launched a fundraising program to support its campaign activities. For the NPP, they developed voucher cards and also had dedicated online plans that allowed party executives and supporters to make donations to fund their then bid to unseat the John Mahama and NDC administration.

The NPP, then in opposition, also indicated that they were raising funds because the campaign was expensive and they needed support from the general public to mass up enough funds to match the then incumbent NDC.