The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has served notice to cancel the registration of 17 political parties because these political parties have no national and regional offices as required by the Act governing political parties.
The Electoral commission has also given these political parties the opportunity to respond in writing in defense to justify their inclusion on the electoral roll.
The action is premised on Section 15 (3) (c) of the Political Parties Act of 2000, Act 574, which mandates the EC to cancel the registration of Political Parties which do not have offices at the National and Regional levels.
The move by the EC has caused anger among some leaders of political parties, who have responded to EC’s move calling it disrespectful.
Akwasi Addai Odike, the leader of the United Progressive Party, in an interview on eye witness news grumbled about being disrespected by the EC Chair.
“This woman [Electoral Commission Boss] doesn’t respect me as a person. Even when I want to meet her to discuss something, never has this woman allowed me to meet her,” Mr. Odike complained.
Others also regard this move as a step in the right direction in enforcing the laws of the nation.
Political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo, had advocated for support for EC’s intent on revoking these 17 political parties. According to him this will aid in the enforcement of the commission’s regulatory mandate.
“Democracy is expensive, so if you have political parties worth their salt, and they satisfy all the requirements that make them political parties and say we practice multi-party democracy, then they should all be on the ballot papers if we have the resources.”
“So the need to cut off these parties shouldn’t be because they are expensive to maintain but because they are not political parties but election machines. The EC can invoke some aspects of the Political Parties Act to cancel their registration and if they disagree, they can go to court”, he said.
Below are political parties to be affected:
Democratic People’s Party (DPP)
United Front Party (UFP)
United Development System Party (UDSP)
Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere (EGLE)
Yes People’s Party (YPP)
United Ghana Movement (UGM)
Democratic Freedom Party (DFP)
New Vision Party (NVP)
Ghana Democratic Republican Party (GDRP)
Ghana National Party (GNP)
Power Unity Party (PUP)
United Progressive Party (UPP)
Reform Patriotic Democrats (RPD)
People’s Action Party (PAP)
United Renaissance Party (URP)
National Reform Party (NRP)
United Love Party (ULP)
Some people have questioned this move with respect to the timing as the governing political party is seeking to ‘break the eight’ – the NPP’s main goal of breaking the eight-year duration of governance by political parties in the country and that the EC did not see the need to do this until now?
Is this a deliberate intent to use all ways possible to break the eight as envisioned by the NPP or is it ‘better late than never to do the right thing’?
Ghanaians are discerning enough to judge.
