Political Scientist and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr. Kwesi Jonah, is calling for the withdrawal of the licenses of dormant political parties in the country.
In an interview with Citi News, Kwesi Jonah said the increasing number of political parties should not be a source of worry but rather their inactivity should be a concern.
[contextly_sidebar id=”2L6ypZzTXmrCTwV2mXfSEthVn7L6lwRL”]He is therefore calling on the Electoral Commission to properly monitor the activities of such political parties and revoke their licenses when necessary.
“In Togo, they have less than 50 percent of our population; [but] they have more parties than Ghana. Mali has nothing close to the population of Ghana but they have 68 political parties. People have no idea the number of political parties that exist in the Francophone countries. So for me it is not the number that is important, it is the inactivity,” he said.
Mr. Jonah argued that a lot of the political parties in Ghana “are dead” because, “they don’t contest election, they don’t even call meetings, they don’t hold congresses.”
“…So for me it is not the number of parties on the EC’s register that is important, it is their inactivity, they don’t conduct any activity at all which is required of a political party. I know a party, since it registered in 1992 it has never contested any election before, what do we do about those parties? I think that is where the EC should concentrate. If a party has registered for a certain number of years but has never contested any election in this country, it is not an active party and it should be expunged from the register,” the political scientist added.
25 political parties in Ghana
Figures from the Electoral Commission suggests that Ghana currently has about 25 political parties registered.
Some of the active ones include: NDC, NPP, CPP, PPP and PNC.
Ban all dormant, ‘meat-pie eating’ parties
The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) had made a similar call to have licenses of dormant political parties revoked by the Electoral Commission.
The PPP argued that such political parties including the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), the Independent People’s Party (IPP) and the YES People’s Party should be expunged from the EC’s political parties list for being dormant.
The National Secretary of the PPP, Kofi Asamoah-Siaw, described the GCPP and the others as “IPAC political parties” who only attend IPAC meeting because of the “Fanta, the rice, the meat pie and the fried chicken and that is it.”
According to the PPP, it is time the EC cleared the country’s political space.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin