Skip to main content

EC deploys personnel to inspect party offices

EC Chairperson-Jean Mensah
The Electoral Commission (EC) has deployed personnel to inspect the offices of political parties and also check on their activities.

The exercise is scheduled to take place tomorrow in all 10 previously existing regions across the country.

Already, the EC has inspected the National offices of political parties and will continue with the inspection in districts after the regional inspection.

The exercise is backed by the Political Parties’ Act, (Act 574) which insists that all political parties have a nationwide presence, including having offices at the national and regional levels and in two-thirds of districts across the country.

However, there are growing concerns that the EC has been lenient on political parties which are said to show up during elections, only to fold up afterwards. But the EC says it will not relent on its duties henceforth.

Background 

The Political Parties Act, 2000 (Act 574) mandates political parties to have offices at the national and regional levels and at least in two-thirds of the districts in the country.

However, a 2015 report by the EC showed that out of the 23 political parties that had registered with the commission, only the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) met the physical presence requirement in at least 144 of the 216 districts.

The report cited the Convention People’s Party (CPP), the People’s National Convention (PNC), the National Democratic Party (NDP), the National Reform Party (NRP), the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) and other parties as not meeting that requirement.

It said it found a trend where some offices alleged to belong to the parties were not even painted in party colours.

Predictably, the 2015 report said the NDC and the NPP had 195 and 200 district offices, respectively.
Following that report, a number of civil society organisations and governance institutions called on the EC to fully sanction the political parties for non-compliance with Act 574.



Source: citinewsroom.com

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Invest your profits back into farming - COCOBOD boss to Cocoa Farmers

Joseph Boahen Aidoo is Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has charged cocoa farmers to be business minded in operating their farms and to partake fully in the various programmes introduced by COCOBOD to ensure good farm yields and to increase profits. "Good farming practices, like pruning, the timely application of fertilizers and proper pests control are essential at all times," he said. Joseph Boahen Aidoo stated this while interacting with farmers in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions, on the first day of his week-long tour of cocoa farms across the county. He was accompanied by the Deputy Chief Executive of Operations at COCOBOD, Dr Emmanuel Opoku, as well, as Directors and Research Scientists from COCOBOD. The tour is aimed at assessing the level of farmer participation in the various farm productivity improvement programmes implemented by COCOBOD; it is also...

Smoke ‘wee’ as much as you want – Muramura Chief to youth

The town is also known for growing of ‘wee’ on a large scale The Chief of Muramura in the Kwahu South District, Nana Gyaakye Amo II, says residents of his town especially the youth are free to smoke marijuana (wee) as much as they want. According to the 83-year-old chief, he’s powerless to deal with the menace and once the youth will not come to smoke the banned substance in his house he cares less and is minding his own business. Nana Gyaakye Amo II, made the shocking comments in an interview with Kasapa News on the back of the unfortunate incident in his town where angry residents on Sunday lynched and set fire into the body of a 29-year-old known ‘wee’ smoker Kofi Sammy for killing a 28-year-old pregnant Woman Alimatu Karim and cooking parts of her mutilated body for food. The town is known for growing of ‘wee’ on a large scale with most of the youth puffing the banned substance at will. When Kasapa News presenter Bonohene Baffuor Awuah asked Nana Gyaakye...

Stop running commentary on our investigations - A-G warns EOCO

Attorney-General, Gloria Akuffo Ms Gloria Afua Akuffo, the Attorney-General has asked the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to open itself to the public but to avoid running commentary on its investigations. According to her speaking in public about their investigations could only frustrates their efforts as well as give out too much information to criminals to change their mode of operations. “Criminals are always waiting to cover their tracks and therefore coming out to speak constantly about a matter, makes it easier for them to cover up and therefore frustrating the outcome of the investigations,” she stressed. She advised that the statutory body should avoid following rumours and suspicions so as not to not embarrass themselves. Ms Akuffo said this at EOCO’s maiden national stakeholders’ forum in Accra aimed at interacting with stakeholders and share information on cases investigated, prosecutions and convictions obtained as well as recoveries and confiscations made. ...