CPP Calls For Checks On Abuse Of Incumbency
The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) has called for the setting up of democratic parameters to check the potential abuse of incumbency.
Mr Bright Oblitie Akwetey, CPP’s Shadow Minister for Justice and Attorney General, in an interview in Accra, said the use of state facilities and resources by an incumbent government for the purposes of prosecuting its electoral agenda must be paid for.”
Mr Akwetey, a former State Attorney, noted that recent developments on the abuse of incumbency demanded that democratic forces and political party leadership came together and set out modalities to reduce gross abuse of state resources and personnel for political party advantage, especially in an election year.
He stressed that the Presidency, Parliament, the Electoral Commission, Public Agencies, Civil Society and Political Parties to instigate indispensable measures to control abuse of incumbency and also create a level playing field in our politics.
Mr Akwetey also cited abuse of incumbency as a major democratic challenge, with the potential of plaguing the country’s democratic development, stressing “persistent abuse of public office for partisan electoral purposes represented a major threat to the sustenance of multiparty democracy in Ghana, and called on the state media to provide a level playing field for “minority parties” as the current environment had created lack of a level playing field and the commercialisation of politics, both of which will need to be addressed.
The media, especially state-owned, print and electronic, should provide coverage for smaller political parties instead of most often focusing on two parties; creating the impression of a two-party state.
On the way forward, Mr Akwetey noted that the CPP would continue to strive to give flesh and meaning to the motto, Freedom and Justice. “We would take steps to improve the justice delivery system to make it efficient.”
“As Nkrumaists, the government of the CPP will be committed to using the law to promote the attainment of the three pillars of the ideology of Nkrumaism, namely; Self-determination, Social Justice and Pan-Africanism”.
He urged the government to focus on providing “basic means of life, and which are work, food and shelter; where poverty and illiteracy will no longer exist and disease is brought under control; and where our educational facilities provide all the children of Ghana with the best possible opportunities for the development of their potentialities”.
On means to combat corruption, the former Attorney General noted that “it would be prudent to hive off the corruption agenda of CHRAJ and add it to the Economic and Organised Crimes Office to limit CHRAJ to its original Ombudsman agenda. “That is what the CPP will do to make CHRAJ more vibrant and responsive in the pursuit of the rule of law, human rights and administrative justice”.
Mr Akwetey noted that the scope of authority of the SFO, now Economic and Organised Crime Office, had been broadened to include: money laundering; Human trafficking; criminal cyber activity; tax fraud and other serious offences. He said those offences impacted negatively on the economy, and must be tackled with all seriousness.
He called on the Government to invest heavily in combating those offences and equip officers of that outfit with the requisite infrastructure and tools.