LESSON FOR THE GAMBIA
Despite the wealth of the Candidate of the Republican Party who is currently the President of the United States, both he and the potential Candidate of the Democratic party, Former Vice President Joe Bidden have fund raising machines. It is reported that in the month of May 2020, the Candidate of the Democratic party raised 80.8 Million Dollars while the Candidate of the Republican party raised 74 Million Dollars.
These huge sums were contributed by big and small donors.
In the Gambia, campaign funding in presidential elections is yet to be a matter of public concern. How Presidential Candidates get money and how much they raise should both be a matter of law and of public concern.
Those who want the candidates they support to win must also put their money where their mouths are. If the Republicans were supporting an individual then they would not see the need to provide funding for the campaign of a Billionaire President. They would be asking him to spend his Billions to make himself the President of the United States.
Those who support political Parties should take ownership of them and finance their political campaigns.
Needless to say, in a genuine democratic country where the state media is opened to all Candidates and state facilities in the form of Public address systems are available to candidates to convey their messages and polling agents paid from state funds as part of the electoral monitoring process, there would be little need to finance campaign from private sources.
