Logos of various political parties in Ghana
Story by: Ishmael Barfi
According to five political parties with no representation in the Parliament of Ghana, registered political parties was vigorously engaged by the Electoral Commission of Ghana with regards to the proposed Constitutional Instrument (CI) laid by the institution on the floor of Parliament.
To them, series of meetings, engagements and consultations was done to seek the views, thoughts and suggestions of all political parties including the two main political parties; the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) since October, 2020.
At a joint press conference held in Accra on 13th March, 2023, Citizen Ato Dadzie who read the statement on behalf of the minority political parties with no representatives in Parliament, explained that, since the country will be going to polls in 2024, there is the need to have elections modalities to ensure a level playing field, hence credible and transparent process that will be accepted by all stakeholders.
Free and Fair elections he noted plays a critical role in political transitions by balancing peaceful democratic and political transformation that leads to increased stability and prosperity.
To that effect, the Electoral Commission he said has always engaged Political parties in its numerous decisions to ensure free and Fair elections as constituted by the Laws of the land which the proposed CI is no exception.
“The content of the new CI was comprehensively discussed at various Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) Meetings and accepted by all the political parties”, he emphasized.
Adding that, there was a consensus on the new CI between all the political parties and the electoral commission, and wondered why other political parties have been opposing its introduction.
“The discussions for a new Constitutional Instrument to introduce the National Identification card as evidence of identity to apply for voter registration started somewhere October 2021”.
He further pointed out that, this was preceded by a 2-day retreat the Electoral Commission held at Alisa hotel in April to discuss the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
“We all engaged in a lot of deliberations and series of meetings, which included civil society organisations for almost a year and resolved to accept to use the National Identification Card as evidence of identification to anyone who applies for registration as a voter,” the statement said.
“Friends from the media, between November 2018 and August 2022, the Electoral Commission set up a Sub-committee of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) to discuss a draft C.I. on the Registration of Voters… initial meetings to which the NDC was invited did not materialize, only for the party to be informed in August 2022 that this proposed C.I. was ready for presentation to Parliament. In other words, the NDC had been completely excluded from the process of preparing the C.I.”
Based on the above statement, Citizen Ato Dadzie warned the general public, especially the teeming supporters of the NDC that their leaders are doing them a great disservice.
According to these political parties, the proposed C.I. was discussed openly at Inter party Committee (IPAC) for almost a year and each party or representative of political party, and civil society organization had the opportunity to contribute to the discussions.
“We, therefore, use this medium to call on Parliament to ensure the new C.I. is laid to help guarantee the integrity and credibility of our voters register and reduce the chaos at registration centers. The lives of voters matter and we need to protect the and ensure agitations are reduced to the barest minimum,” the parties said.
“Therefore, if elections are flagged red or fraudulent due to infiltration of minors or foreigners, then there is no level playing field for political parties and candidates contesting in the electronics and voters preferences are unlikely to be translated to fully into election outcomes”, he quizzed.
With regards to accessibility of place for registration, he indicated that, the EC has made it crystal clear in all of it’s engagements and meetings with the various political parties that, it would designate registration centers are would be much accessible to eligible voters.
Therefore, does not understand the stance of the main opposition party in rejecting the propose laid CI in Parliament.
Adding “The Commission shall take into consideration the accessibility of a place to prospective applicants for registration and this is working”.
The five Political Parties that held the joint press conference are namely the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), The Great Consolidated peoples Party (GCPP), All People Congress (APC) , the National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Peoples National Convention (PNC).
Source: www.thenewindependentonline.com
