We gave 17 political parties time to grow but they failed – EC

The Electoral Commission (EC) has indicated that it relaxed the laws for the 17 political parties whose licences had been revoked, hoping that they would grow to meet the law establishing political parties in the country but they couldn’t.

Dr Serebour Quaicoe, the Director of Electoral Services at the EC said this in an interview with Nana Otu Darko, the sit-in host of the Ghana Yensom morning show on Accra 100.5 FM on Tuesday, November 15, 2022.

He said Act 574 of the political party’s law has it that parties registered with the EC shall have national offices and general offices across the country.

He said the decision to go and inspect the offices of the political parties was taken at an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting with all 28 political parties last year.

He said the various political parties were duly informed about the exercise.

According to him, section 15 of the political party's Act says the offices shall be established and maintained but "the 17 parties have no functional offices across the country."

He queried if a party with a functional office goes on break.

He added that democracy goes hand-in-hand with laws and the law says party offices must be established and maintained.

"These political parties failed to maintain their offices in the regions," he charged and stressed that he led the team to do the verification of the offices of 17 parties and they have no functional offices.

He said some of the 28 parties on the EC’s list are not cut for a political party status because some of them were formed to fight the state.

He disclosed that this is the first phase of the exercise and the second phase of the exercise will be dealing with the financial standings of the parties in the elections management body's register