Electoral Commission Cautions Non-Performing Parties

Accra - Mr. David Kanga, Deputy Chairman Electoral Commission (EC), has stated that August ending is the deadline for all political parties to meet the criteria for continued recognition as political parties or risk having their certificates withdrawn, an obvious disqualification from contesting the 2000 elections.

He minced no words when The Accra Mail sought his clarification on certain electoral issues, especially when it was suggested that the EC had issued the directive in order to prune down the number of political parties in the country.

He said the problem was not the number of parties but availability of resources to keep the parties' machinery active. Mr. Kanga had delivered a speech to open the first in a series of workshops of training of trainers for election observers organised by the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Church at Ho last week.

Highlighting the criteria, he specified that each registered political party must have a national following, organised in at least two thirds of the110 districts with permanent secretariats and record of accounts for scrutiny.

Mr. Kanga explained that the EC had to apply the laws to enable Ghanaians vote for viable parties with well-fashioned programmes and policies to assume the reigns of government.

Using the term "mushroom" to refer to the dormant political parties, he claimed that some exist only on paper and press interviews to throw dust into the eyes of the public while at the same time blocking the chances of viable parties to get the opportunity of implementing their programmes.

Commenting on parties that might rely on the structures of their senior partner in an alliance, the Deputy Chairman asserted that a party can only lay claim to those structures when they are in a merger but not in an alliance that is a loose arrangement. He hinted that the regional and district offices had monitored and had been furnishing the head office with reports of operations of the various political parties across the country for the necessary action to be taken.

The EC ultimatum, coming at a time when some political parties are yet to find their feet on the political terrain, is likely to send panic waves across the political landscape.

It is over to the parties to prove their mettle if they don't want to be forced to go under. It is believed that some political groupings just want to be in the history books, though they will argue that they have something to prove.