Funding for political parties

CONGRATULATIONS to Registrar of Political Parties Dr Alphonse Gelu and his team for taking the initiative to run roadshows to promote a better awareness of the different political parties that are registered in the country.
What surprises and saddens me as an ordinary citizen is the gratuity payments that are being paid to the general secretaries of the political parties.
Should those payments not be the responsibilities of the political parties themselves? The general secretary is the party’s point of contact and should therefore be funded by the party. The political parties virtually do nothing out in the villages to promote their party. They surface like a submarine during an election campaign, and disappears under water again after the election.
Why and how was the State was allowed to take responsibility for making such payments in the first place? This is clearly a political party matter.
Perhaps the Registrar can shed some light on this matter for the general public’s information.
This is something that the ordinary people did not know about and is being revealed publicly for the first time.
For us who are not politically aligned, we have always thought this was the political party’s responsibility. The Government should stop unnecessary overseas travels by ministers and their 20 or so group of travelling delegates and start funding institutions like the Registry of Political Parties so they can continue to undertake important roadshows throughout the country.
More roadshows are needed out in the villages and wards and it’s important that the parties themselves take the leading roles in promoting their policies.

Lawrence Billy
Hospital Hill