Political parties should have 5% parliamentary representation before contesting elections — Akim Swedru MP 

The Member of Parliament for Akim Swedru, Kennedy Nyarko Osei, has called for an amendment to Ghana's Political Parties Act to introduce stricter requirements for political parties seeking to contest national elections.

According to the lawmaker, political parties should be required to secure at least five per cent representation in Parliament before they are allowed to participate in national elections.

Mr. Nyarko Osei made the proposal in a social media post on Wednesday, July 29, in which he argued that the reforms would help eliminate political parties that only emerge during election years without making any meaningful contribution to Ghana's democratic process.

"I think it’s time for us to amend the Political Parties Act and any other provisions to ensure that any political party that seeks to contest or take part in any national elections must at least have 5% representation in Parliament," the post read.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) legislator further suggested that independent candidates should also meet defined organisational and electoral thresholds before qualifying to contest future elections.

According to the lawmaker, independent candidates must be able to maintain visible offices in all 276 constituencies across the country before contesting elections.

"Those who also seek to contest as independent candidates must have visible offices in all the 276 constituencies with a certain number of administrative staff or might not have obtained less than 5% votes of the previous general elections," he stated.

Explaining the rationale behind his proposal, Mr. Nyarko Osei argued that the measures would prevent political parties that only become active during election periods from using the electoral process to mobilise resources without demonstrating broad national support.

He stressed that although Ghana's Constitution guarantees the freedom to form political parties, the country should not continue to expend scarce public resources on parties that fail to win parliamentary seats or secure a significant share of the national vote.

"The fact that the Constitution allows for free associations and formation of political parties does not mean the country must waste its scarce resources in conducting elections which almost 98% of parties taking part do not even win one seat or garner 5% of the national votes," he stated.