Prominent US-based Ghanaian legal scholar and anti-corruption campaigner Professor Kwaku Asare has raised critical questions about the soaring financial barriers in Ghana’s political landscape, calling for a shift towards “Operation Prevent All Loot” (OPAL) to curb monetisation in internal party elections.
Writing under his popular commentary persona “GOGO” on Monday, 12 October 2026, Prof Asare highlighted the stark disparity in filing fees between the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), alongside steep historical cost increases within parties since 2018.
His intervention comes as political parties face growing public scrutiny over high candidate filing fees and the widespread practice of individual aspirants directly funding delegate transportation and logistics.
Skyrocketing Internal Election Costs
Analysing the recently announced filing fee structure for the NDC’s national executive elections alongside the NPP’s past figures, Prof Asare pointed to substantial cost gaps across key positions:
- National Chairman: NDC charges GH₵100,000 compared to the NPP’s GH₵50,000.
- General Secretary: NDC charges GH₵80,000 compared to the NPP’s GH₵25,000.
- National Organiser: NDC charges GH₵70,000, which is seven times the NPP’s GH₵10,000 fee.
- Communications Officer: NDC charges GH₵50,000 compared to the NPP’s GH₵10,000.
- Youth Organiser: NDC charges GH₵40,000 compared to the NPP’s GH₵8,000.
Comparing the current figures with the NDC’s 2018 opposition-era fees reveals exponential jumps over an eight-year period, with National Chairman and General Secretary filing fees rising by 900 per cent from GH₵10,000 and GH₵8,000 respectively, while the National Organiser fee rose by 1,067 per cent from GH₵6,000 to GH₵70,000.
The Heavy Burden of Delegate Transport
Beyond official filing fees, the commentary underscored the massive off-budget spending required to transport delegates to national congresses.
Referring to admission by Nana Akomea, who unsuccessfully contested the First Deputy National Chairman position in the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), that he paid GH₵400 in transportation fares to each of the more than 7,000 delegates during the party’s recently held conference, yielding a personal expenditure exceeding GH₵2.8 million, Prof Asare questioned why political parties do not organise delegate transportation centrally.
“₵2.8 million for transportation? That money could buy a bus!” he wrote, arguing that centralised logistical coordination by party secretariats would significantly lower the financial burden on individual candidates and preserve internal party equity.
Seven Key Questions for Democratic Reform
To address what he termed the transformation of democratic vehicles into “auction houses,” Prof Asare posed seven fundamental questions to Ghana’s political leadership:
- Revenue vs. Leadership: Are filing fees designed strictly to cover election administrative costs or to fund general party operations?
- Fee Disparities: What justifies vast administrative fee differences between major parties for identical office processing?
- Financial Exclusion: How can grassroots organisers without deep pockets or wealthy backers fairly contest?
- Financier Influence: Who finances high-cost campaigns, and what expectations do monetary sponsors attach to their investments?
- Youth Participation: Do high filing fees effectively price young, emerging leaders out of political participation?
- Economic Justification: Has the actual cost of administering internal elections increased tenfold since 2018?
- Power Dynamics: Does holding executive power in government artificially inflate the price tag of internal party office?
Shift from Post-Facto Prosecution to Prevention
Connecting internal election spending to wider governance challenges, Prof Asare warned that candidates who deploy personal fortunes or rely on heavy private sponsorship to secure political office often view governance as an investment that must yield financial returns.
He advocated for a systemic shift from post-facto anti-corruption enforcement towards structural prevention, coining the term “Operation Prevent All Loot” (OPAL).
“When politicians spend fortunes to win office, they may see public office as an investment to recover, with interest,” Prof Asare noted. “Reduce the cost of getting into office, and you reduce the temptation to loot once in office.”
He urged major parties to publish transparent election administrative budgets, cap candidate spending, enforce endorsement-based qualification criteria, and centrally manage delegate logistics to ensure political leadership remains accessible to all citizens regardless of personal wealth.
