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Who succeeds the outgoing Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, yesterday took centre stage of a meeting of the caucus of political parties’ national chairmen under the auspices of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Ghana Political Party Programme (GPPP).

The regular monthly meeting of the caucus with representation in Parliament, which usually discusses issues affecting the country, also deliberated on preparations towards the 2016 elections, status of the Ghana Constitutional Review Process and electoral reforms.

The meeting was attended by Mr Kofi Porturphy, National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who chaired the meeting, Mr Paul Afoko, National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan, National Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), and Ms Samia Nkrumah, National Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP).

Briefing the press, Dr Ransford Gyampo, Research Fellow and Co-ordinator of IEA/GPP programme, said the chairmen vowed to use dialogue and concensus building to ensure that their influence and views as leaders were brought to bear on the decisions that affected Ghana’s democratisation process.

Dr Gyampo said they also resolved to use dialogue and healthy political interaction and exchanges devoid of insults in deepening interparty collaboration in Ghana.

He said they also resolved to use their good offices to remove all hindrances to the maturation of the national democratisation process to ensure that the country continued to enjoy peace, stability and prosperity.

Dr Gyampo said since 2002 when the idea of Ghana Political Party Programme was mooted, it had been engaged in brainstorming and discussion of issues of national importance in a non-partisan manner.

He said some of the issues of national importance which had been initiated by the chairmen were the constitutional review project, Public Funding of Political Party Bill, Political Parties Code of Conduct and Revised Political Parties Act.

He said the Presidential Transition Bill, which sought to end the political polarisation of the country by ensuring that a change of government by the ballot box should not be equated to a coup d’etat as former ministers were ejected from their houses as if they had committed an offence, was also a GPPP initiative.