<<Print>>

The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has been urged to raise the bar in the event that the state is going to fund activities of political parties.

A political scientist, Dr Richard Amoako Baah, who made the suggestion, has noted that when standards are high, it will serve as a disincentive for charlatans, who want to take undue advantage of the system to advance their parochial interests.

Speaking with Emefa Apawu on Class 91.3 FM’s 505 News programme on Tuesday June 14, Dr Amoako Baah noted: “It is not a simple matter of giving money to every political party; there has to be some qualification, for example, if you win a certain number of votes, then you qualify to get it”.

“So, when you do that it will prevent charlatans from forming their own [political] parties just to make noise and support somebody else. Right now in Ghana, we have too many little-front parties and it is not appropriate when we allow all those things to go on, it diminishes the integrity of our electoral process …because somebody is in the game just to support somebody else that is not how it is supposed to be. So, there should be some sort of qualification.”

The political science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) further said: “We have laws already that say political parties must have offices across the country, we are not enforcing that. If we enforce that alone, many of these [parties] will go out.

“What is Akua Donkor’s party [Ghana Freedom Party]? How viable are they when the leader can’t speak English, and if she wins, is she going to transact business in Twi? Is she going to read things in Twi? How is that supposed to work?

“It is not difficult to enforce the laws; you just have to have the right Electoral Commission [Chair]; that is it. And if the Electoral Commission is doing its job properly, then they will stop many of these charlatan activities going on.”

He added: “People form parties only to get money from somebody or to help another party. That should not be allowed.”