EC to Discipline Political Parties

The Electoral Commission (EC) has indicated its intentions to clamp down on political parties through the strict enforcement of constitutional provisions and the Political Parties Law.

“The past ten years had been used as the nurturing, and strengthening of party politics under the Fourth Republic, we had been flexible on the applications of some portions of the provision to enable the parties grow.

”The nurturing period is over, the parties must be prepared to adhere to the laws as the non-performing one’s certificate would be revoked to ensure that our constitutional rule and democratic governance matures on a solid foundation,” a source at the Commission stated in an interview in Accra.

The law, among other things states that all political parties shall establish branches in all the regions and in addition organised in not less than two-thirds of the districts in each region. The EC Source reminded political parties that without any prejudice, the Commission is empowered to cancel a party’s registration if it refuses or neglects to comply with the constitutional provisions or submits a declaration that is false in any material.

The Source hinted that the nation-wide assessment of political parties, conducted in July 2000 to ensure that their operations are in conformity with provisions and the Political Parties Law (Act 574) would be published soon.

He said the publication of the report was delayed due to the pressure on the commission for the December 2000 elections and the impact it would have had on the electoral process. Now the political temperature is quite low to accommodate the critical analysis and understanding of the short falls of the parties as well as appreciation of the Commission’s recommendations and actions.

The report, the EC Source said was critical about the operations of dormant parties especially Ghana Democratic Republican Party (GDRP) which had not participated in any elections since its establishment and registration. He said there are 10 registered political parties in the country, but some exist only on paper, operate through the media and do not satisfy the law.

The are the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Convention People’s Party (CPP), the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and EGLE Party. The others are People’s National Convention (PNC), the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), United Ghana Movement (UGM), Ghana Democratic Republican Party (GDRP), and the National Reform Party (NRP).

A checklist for the assessment, which covers the national, regional, district and constituency operations of the political parties include the declaration of assets. This includes the nature of office facility, date and mode of acquisition and the number of rooms and office equipment. The parties were also to disclose the type of furniture in use, payment of the salaries of party office permanent staff, utility bills and other party expenditures.

The checklist is based on sections 15(1) 13(1) of the political parties Act 2000. It also requires political parties to declare contributions by citizens in the form of dues and donations in cash and kind. Other requirements were the provision of particulars of political parties’ national, regional and district officers, their names and voter ID card numbers, residential addresses and the name and address of the parties’ auditor.The Source also disclosed that the Commission would soon decide on the fate of UGM, which after the 2000 general election decided to undertake an unconstitutional act of a “Political Holiday.”