Political Parties must adhere strictly to Code of Conduct

Political Parties have been advised to adhere strictly to the Political Parties Code of Conduct and be tolerant at all times.

The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, gave the advice when he inaugurated the Upper East Regional Inter-Party Dialogue Committee (IPDCs) at Bolgatanga on Tuesday.

The Minister stressed that Ghana has witnessed two decades of sound multi-party democracy and this has created socio-political harmony, economic well-being, the rule of law and active participation of the citizenry in the decision-making processes at all levels in society.

The Minister, who attributed the gains chalked to the sound efforts made by the political parties, also stressed that “those efforts should not be taken for granted during the forthcoming elections”.

He impressed upon the leaderships of political parties to advice their functionaries who appear on radio discussion programmes to try to uphold the dignity and integrity of political leaders when discussing them.

Mr Woyongo said the government was prepared to ensure the elections were conducted in a transparent, fair and peaceful manner and that was why it was introducing the Biometric Voters Register and Prisoners voting right systems.

He tasked the Regional IPDCs to take their work seriously by acting as buffer zones at the constituency levels to prevent unnecessary suspicion and anxiety among political parties.

The Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Peter Mensah, said the successful conduct of the election would test the country’s democratic credentials and indicated that the political parties needed to play the major part to ensure that this was achieved.

He said the Institute of Economic Affairs is mandated to sanction any political party that would violate the Code of Conduct of Political Parties, which includes defacing of party symbols, derogatory remarks, insults and bribery.

He advised the media to play a very crucial role by ensuring that their airwaves were not used as platforms by political parties to attack one another or to inflame passions.