Akwasi Addai Odike, the leader of the United Progressive Party, has accused the Electoral Commission of disrespecting some smaller parties following the notice to revoke the registration of 17 of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis woman [Electoral Commission Chair] doesn\u2019t respect me as a person. Even when I want to meet her to discuss something, never has this woman allowed me to meet her,\u201d Mr. Odike complained on Eyewitness News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Electoral Commission wants these parties to respond in writing justifying why they should be maintained on the country\u2019s political parties list because they have no national and regional offices as required by the Act governing political parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Between May and June 2022, the EC embarked on a nationwide exercise to inspect the offices of all registered political parties in Ghana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the exercise, the EC invoked Section 15 (3) (c) of the Political Parties Act of 2000, Act 574, which mandates it to cancel the registration of Political Parties which do not have offices at the National and Regional levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Odike argued that the commission already has the required information because they were provided ahead of previous elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll the information was provided to them, so I don\u2019t understand why she makes a U-turn to throw into the public space that they cannot find our offices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSometimes NDC and NPP fail to submit even their audited reports, and it takes the EC to go after them for many months before they submit it. These are normal things that happen to political parties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Odike also criticised the commission for making this information public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen we write to EC we don\u2019t put it in the public domain, so they must accord us that respect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n