We Support The EC Move To Withdraw Licenses Of Political Parties

The Progressive People's Party has learnt with great fulfillment an attempt by the Electoral Commission to enforce portions of the Political Parties Law relating to the minimum number of offices political parties must have in Ghana.

In an online publication by myjoyonline yesterday, it was reported that the EC would withdraw the licenses of political parties that did not meet the requirement of having offices in two-thirds of the districts in Ghana. This bold step of the EC is commendable.

The PPP had received a copy of the said report on the exercise conducted by the EC and attempts have been made to exceed the minimum requirement by the end of August, 2015. The PPP has at the moment 105 constituency offices and 9 regional offices with an ultra-modern national headquarters. We believe the move by the EC to withdraw the licenses of non-compliant parties will sanitize the political space by getting rid of charlatan political parties used as rabble rousers during elections.

We also take notice that the report sought to indicate that the NPP and the NDC have met the requirements on parties offices. We wish to remind the EC that, there are other very important requirements that needs to be respected by the parties. These include the sources of campaign funds and the filing of audited accounts by the parties with the EC. The EC must take the NPP and the NDC to task and independently investigate the source of campaign funds for these parties. The EC has the power to cause an independent audit of the accounts of any political party.

We are extremely happy that the EC is beginning to work as the regulator of political parties; a function it has abandoned since the fourth republic. We urge the EC to enforce the Political Parties Law to ensure some discipline in our democratic process.

Kofi Asamoah-Siaw
National Secretary
Progressive People's Party