DFP decries "discrimination" by IEA, KNUST, AGI, NUGS

Accra, July 23, GNA - The Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) on Wednesday decried the discriminatory and "kingmaker posture" adopted by some democratic stakeholders in deciding which political party the electorate should listen to in Election 2008.

"The practice of creating 'Four Party Agenda' is unacceptable as it denies the Ghanaian electorate an opportunity to fairly assess all political parties contesting Election 2008," Mr Prince-Derek Adjei, DFP National Youth Organizer, stated in a protest statement copied to Ghana News Agency in Accra.

The DFP criticised the behaviour of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) for organising political education event only for political parties with representation in parliament. The DFP expressed disgust about the "open bias" exhibited by these institutions in organizing otherwise laudable events for purpose of getting the electorate to make informed decision in the December polls for only four political parties.

"We wish to remind you that there are more than four registered political parties in Ghana together with some potential independent candidates intending to contest for the December polls, hence by limiting the informed choices to only four out of the lot is a great disservice to the Ghanaian electorate," it stated. "We wish to find out who sponsored the NUGS event and what conditions, if any, caused the Union to limit the event to only four parties and called on the Central Committee of NUGS to investigate the unfortunate campaigning by NUGS for the four parties," the statement stated.

DFP said it was committed to the systematic development and entrenchment of the nation's democratic practices. The party therefore urged all organisations particularly civil society groups and media organisations to respect the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution, which promoted equity and frowned on all forms of discrimination. DFP said the convention of restricting the key operations, including funding and capacity building to the four parties with representation in parliament had the tendency to project these parties in direct contravention of several aspects of the 1992 Constitution. The Youth Wing of DFP also condemned the tagging of some political parties as "small, big or major," in Ghana. "All the registered political parties have 138 Founding Members and necessarily need to satisfy the same requirements demanded by law before being given their final certificates," the party said.