Group demands audited accounts and asserts of political parties from EC

A group calling itself CitizenGhana Movement is demanding from Ghana's Electoral Commission the audited accounts and asserts of all registered political parties.

This was contained in a statement signed by the movement.

The statement said: ''These demands were made pursuant to Article 55(14) of the 1992 Constitution, Section 14 of the Political Parties Act and the constitutional right to information as affirmed in the Bus Branding case.

''The statement added: ''We are hopeful that the Electoral Commission shall respect our constitutional right to information and furnish us with the information requested. We shall however not hesitate to proceed to the courts of law to enforce this right should the Electoral Commission fail to grant our request.''

Find below the full statement

CITIZENGHANA MOVEMENT DEMANDS DETAILS OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE FROM ELECTORAL COMMISSION

On Thursday the 29th of March, 2017, the CitizenGhana Movement (CGM), a civil society group dedicated to the cause of good governance, social justice and social accountability, wrote to the Electoral Commission to demand copies of the annual audited accounts and assets and revenues of all 24 registered political parties.

In the letter, Lolan Ekow Sagoe-Moses, a member of the CitizenGhana Movement and lead applicant in the RIGHT TO INFORMATION CASE (also called the Bus Branding Case), Lolan Sagoe-Moses and 6 Others vrs Honourable Minister of Transport and Attorney General, Suit No HR/0027/2015 demanded:

The statements of assets and liabilities, submitted by all registered political parties on the 4th of November 2016 pursuant to Section 14(1) of the Political Parties Act.

The returns containing the statement of accounts, source of funding, membership dues paid, contributions or donations in cash or kind, properties and their time of acquisition and audited accounts, of all registered political parties, which were filed on the 1st of June 2016, pursuant to Section 21(1) of the Political Parties Act.

These demands were made pursuant to Article 55(14) of the 1992 Constitution, Section 14 of the Political Parties Act and the constitutional right to information as affirmed in the Bus Branding case.

This letter is the first of a series of actions CGM intends to take this year to push for more transparency in the body politic of Ghana.

We at CGM consider this move as critical in the overall fight against corruption.The opaque political party finance system is at the heart of the complex of political patronage and allows some people to be awarded fraudulent contracts as repayments for their campaign contributions.

We are hopeful that the Electoral Commission shall respect our constitutional right to information and furnish us with the information requested. We shall however not hesitate to proceed to the courts of law to enforce this right should the Electoral Commission fail to grant our request.

We humbly call on all Ghanaians to join us to combat the problem of opaque political party finance and the harmful system of patronage it fuels.

—Signed—

CitizenGhana Movement