The leadership of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) says it is awaiting the Electoral Commission’s (EC) response on its call for electoral reforms to ensure free and fair polls in future elections.
It will be recalled that the PPP in a letter to the EC called for urgent political reforms among which included the need for the latter to publish the numbers from the Biometric Verification machine to enable proper cross-checking with results obtained by polling agents, and other essential reforms.
The PPP believes the county’s EC has been lax in implementing the Political Parties Law which enjoins the EC to audit the ability of the existing parties to meet the constitutional requirements of being national in character; have offices opened in at least two-thirds of all districts in the country; have officers elected at the constituency, regional and national levels under the supervision of the EC as well as provide financial reports.
PPP is of the opinion that the EC must take the bull by the horn and disqualify parties that do not meet the minimum criteria within the next six months.
And this, the PPP believes would prove that the EC is not only concerned about conducting elections but the nature and character of the political actors involved in the whole electioneering process.
The party that has become the third force in the Ghanaian political landscape further recommended that the EC immediately begins the process of putting in place steps for the verification, documentation and auditing of campaign funding.
This is to check and nip in the bud the widely held perception that some parties were being funded by foreign entities which goes against the laws of the EC.
Meanwhile, the PPP has re-iterated its call for the separation of the Attorney General’s office from the Ministry of Justice.
This, according to the party, is the only way of checking corruption in officialdom which cause the nation about GH¢3 billion annually.
The PPP also believes that the separation of these two state institutions would go a long way to putting a halt on immoral and fraudulent practices in some state agencies.
The call to separate the A-G’s office from the Justice Ministry was part of the PPP’s 10-point agenda which the party presented for the 2012 General Elections. The party stated that it would attack crime, drug trade and corruption aggressively using leadership by example, being modest in government, passing and implementing the Right to Information Bill.
The PPP also proffers the prohibition of members of parliament from being appointed as ministers of state and the direct election of district, municipal and metropolitan chief executives without any interference from the President.
