The Institute for Democratic Governance, IDEG is training leaders of lesser known political parties to increase their participation in the upcoming elections.
IDEG believes these parties are not given the same playing field as the other two major political parties- the NDC and NPP.
[contextly_sidebar id=”0Ra3LJcrBVT1EG4ziUsozMEBbEdCpSeH”]At an agenda setting workshop on Wednesday, representatives of the United Front Party (UFP), the Independence People’s Party (IPP), the Convention People’s Party (CPP), and the National Democratic Party (NDP) participated in the training.
A Political Scientist and Senior Research Fellow at IDEG, Dr. Kwesi Jonah told Citi News the initiative will improve the country’s democracy.
“We are not forming an association of small parties. We are bringing individual small parties here to develop their capacity. However because this programme will bring them together they will also have the opportunity to talk about common challenges such as the one currently facing them.”
He added that “there is the idea that if they do not have offices in two thirds of the districts in each region, then their certificates of operation will be withdrawn but at IDEG we do not think that we can in the name of enforcing the law, get rid of these small parties. If we enforce this law and get rid of all these mini parties, how many parties will be left?About two or three. I don’t think this is the kind of democracy that we want.”
Provide equal opportunities
The National Media Commission (NMC) has called on the media to provide equal opportunities to all political parties as they spread their messages during this election year.
They said the guidelines of election reporting and ethics of journalism required all media houses to provide political parties fair access to the media irrespective of the ownership of the media house.
They called on all media practitioners in the country to strictly adhere to the principles of fairness, balanced and accurate dissemination of information to the electorate on election activities and issues emerging out of election-related events.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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