The electoral commission of Ghana has revoked the certificates of seventeen political parties in the 2024 upcoming elections. Despite the fact that Ghana is a democratic state and therefore practices the multi-party system, these seventeen political parties have been revoked due to their inability to abide by the Political Party Bill.
This bill contains the activities required of a political party and one of the requirements for establishing and running a political party is that it should be operating in the districts, regions and the nation at large.
According to Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, Director of Electoral Services at the EC, stated that the EC has decided to revoke the certificates of these seventeen parties because they have failed to comply to the rules under the Political Parties act.
“Thirty years is enough for them to put their houses in order so let’s sack those who are not complying with the law… some of them cannot be located, so there was a meeting where we raised this topic. You know, Ghanaians, we have all been complaining about the number of political parties in our system.”
Dr. Serebour Quaicoe
He stated that before the decision was made, there were about twenty-eight political parties in the country, and currently there about 15 new parties trying to join the train. After thorough investigation at the offices of these political parties, the EC found out that about seventeen of them were found guilty of non- compliance to the law, he explained.
Some political parties accused the EC of being selective during the investigation process. They claimed that some political parties whose licenses have not been revoked need to be revoked because they did not have the “two-thirds in every region” representation requirement.
“The first group satisfied all the conditions, the second group satisfied half of the conditions but we said that let’s look at what we can do to them. Then the third group did not at all, so those who did not at all are those that have been canceled.”
Dr. Serebour Quaicoe
The Director of Electoral Services of the EC stated that those who were found guilty of non-compliance were given two weeks two answer to the EC and they did not give any solid reasons why they should be allowed to continue operating.
Some Members Call For An Extension To Renew Leases
Leader of the People’s Action Party, Kwasi Busumbru stated that, affected parties of the EC’s decision to revoke the certificates of some political parties, needed more time to renew their licenses to be able to keep operating.
He said that his party’s dues were available in the financial report he presented, adding that some of the offices they acquired in the year 2020 were old enough to meet the criteria to still keep operating as a legal political party.
“I have offices in sixteen regions, the district offices that we acquired around 2020 November before I was disqualified, the lease has expired. So, my argument is, this day and age, we don’t need 181 offices which is the two thirds.”
Kwasi Busumbru
Mr. Busumbru explained that even now, transactions and businesses are carried out on zoom, hence it was not necessary for all 181 offices to be running. He indicated that it was wrong for the EC to accuse them of breaking the law and revoking their certificates as well, because these offices were in existence but they were not running.
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