EC official against strict enforcement of political party laws

Ho, Dec 21, GNA - Political parties in the Volta Region are unable to open their offices regularly as stipulated by law but Miss Laurentia Kpatakpa, the Regional Electoral Commission Director, said enforcing the la= w to the letter could jeopardize 93our fledgling multi-party system". She said the reality was that for lack of funds the party offices close after elections and staff dispersed to be assembled again for other elections.

Miss Kpatakpa was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after the Agency went round Ho and found only the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and minority New Patriotic Party (NPP) offices opened. She said even the two major parties were under serious stress because their large followings might not be paying membership dues or providing resources for running their parties.

"That is why I would vouch for some state funding of political parti= es to strengthen and keep them organizationally active always," Miss Kpatakp= a said. She said as the situation was now, a limited number of party bigwigs with the 93wherewithal" provide the resources for running the parties an= d therefore 93hold sway over them".

At the NDC Regional Office Miss Mary Ayebi, one of the two secretaries= , told the GNA that work was going on normally and that the Regional Secretar= y reported to the office to attend to important matters when the need arose. The Secretary at the NPP Regional Office would not talk to the GNA but gave the cell phone number of the Regional Secretary who could not be reached after several attempts. 2