E C must ban all “dead” parties

The popular political scientist, Dr Kwesi Jonah who has taught and sensitized people for a considerably long time in Ghana has hit the nail right on the head by calling for the withdrawal of licenses of dormant political parties. Although Dr Jonah being a leading staff of IDEG has succeeded in laying bare all there is to know on this matter, he spoke the minds of many people in the political as well as academic fields. Yes many people around the nation are saying that the need to ban dormant parties is long overdue because the leaders of those parties represent the interest nobody but themselves.

Apart from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) New Patriotic Party (NPP) People National Convention (PNC) Progressive People Party (PPP ) and National Democratic Party (NDP) who are visible and making efforts to live up to expectation, the rest of the registered political parties are not active and therefore nowhere to be found . Dr Jonah was right in saying that most of the parties do not hold meetings, rallies and congresses. Dr Jonah is right in making this assertion for in addition of being inactive addition to this some of the parties do not make their presence felt because they do not seem to have offices in Accra let alone the districts and regional capitals of Ghana in line with the legal requirements of registered political parties. The nation is poised for elections in November and Almost all the popular political parties would choose their presidential and parliamentary candidates to get ready for the coming polls. However many of the 25 or more parties that include, the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), the Independent People’s Party (IPP) and the YES People’s Party and Ghana freedom party GFP would not be in a position to take part in these exercises let alone contest the presidency or parliamentary polls. What is needed urgently is for the Electoral commission to take steps to examine the current status of all political parties to determine whether they are all qualified to remain on the books of the EC as qualified political parties. Those parties found to be unqualified must be expunged from the list of political parties. If this step is not taken the unqualified political parties would behave as empty pedestrians parading around the nation with no legally acceptable roles. They may use use their parties as bargaining chips to go about seeking funds from larger political parties and individuals and organizations that do not know about their true intentions and status. There are some of these political parties that would enter into alliances with truly qualifies parties to seek funding for the selfish ends of the leaders of these parties. Ghana is not the only nation in Africa with many political parties. Mali, Togo and Benin are among nations with many political parties. I agree with Dr Jonah that there is nothing wrong with Ghana having many political parties. It is the right of those forming the parties under the constitution to do so. But If a party is registered for a certain number of years but has never contested any election in this country, it is not an active party and therefore should be expunged from the register of political parties. This suggestion coming from many minds in Ghana must be taken seriously. By taking steps to cheek the profile of all political parties with the view to retaining only those that are qualified to be on the books of the Electoral Commission the EC would be doing what is right.

Executive Director

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