EC Should Fully Enforce The Political Party Law—UPP General Secretary

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission need to be highly commended for reaching consensus with the other commissioners of the commission to fully sanctions political parties for non-compliance of the Political Parties Law 2000, Act 574 with effect from the 1st January 2016.

This laudable enforcement of the law is long overdue. This move is one of the good measures taken to redeem the image of the Commission and restore public confidence in the operations and administration of the Electoral Commission ahead of the 2016 general elections.

There are too many moribund and ‘Posters-Media-based’ Political Parties in Ghana. Most of these moribund political parties have been founded base on self seeking agenda, bitterness and evil revenge to destroy the votes of another sister political party. Examples of such parties are UGM, NRP, PPP, DFP and NDP.

Ghana young multi-party democracy needs very serious political parties to help contribute to the nation building by offering responsible opposition to the party in government as well as offers top-notch alternative solutions to the numerous socio-economic challenges facing Ghanaians. And most importantly the political parties must be law abiding especially the Political Parties Law 2000, Act 574.

Most of the Political Parties in Ghana such as PPP, GFP, UPP, IPP, GCPP and DPP does not even adhere to democratic practice and internal contest. Sometimes one person can occupy more than three positions. Majority of the moribund parties does not even have a single regional office in Ghana and not to talk of a national office or district offices.

The EC should make sure that they walk the talk and cancel every political party which does not fully comply with the Political Parties Law 2000, Act 574 including my party, United Progressive Party (UPP) if we failed to fully comply with the Political Parties Law 2000, Act 574.

Lack of implementation and enforcement of laws are the real cause of Ghana socio-economic difficulties. Mrs. Charlotte Kesson-Smith Osei, Ghanaians are looking up to you to do things differently from your predecessor. I am urging you to crack the whip on the non-functional Political Parties.

I am equally suggesting to the Electoral Commission that political parties without representation in parliament should not be allowed to participate in IPAC meetings.

Ghana deserves some level of sanity and discipline in the political discourse.

Razak Kojo Opoku
General Secretary, UPP