EC sets 13 February deadline for submission of audited accounts to political parties

General News on Thursday, February 7, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-02-07

The Electoral Commission (EC) has called on political parties that have not yet submitted their reports and audited accounts for 2017/218 to do so before 13 February.

European Commission President Jean Mensa said the Commission had noted that the number of audited accounts received so far was not in line with international standards.

Ms Mensa launched the appeal on Wednesday in a speech read on her behalf at a press conference in Accra.

The press conference was held to present the main decisions taken at the end of the Inter-party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting.

Representatives of registered political parties, development partners and a number of civil society organizations (CSOs) were present at the meeting.

In addition, senior officials of the Commission were present.

The deliberations of the meeting focused on the 2018 referendum on the establishment of six new regions, the partial election of Ayawaso West Wuogon, the 2019 district elections and the referendum on the election of district, metropolitan, municipal and municipal leaders. (MMDCE).

Others are updates on the law creating the representative of the people (ROPAA), the inspection of the offices of political parties and the level of compliance of political parties with respect to their audited accounts 2017 / 2018.

Ms. Mensa stated that after the deliberations and discussions, some decisions had been adopted and adopted by the meeting.

She said that the DLE and the referendum to amend Article 55 (3), which would allow the election of the MMDCEs on a partisan basis, would take place on the same day.

Ms. Mensa stated that deadlines for the DLE, referendum and related activities would be announced in due course.

"Before the referendum, the EC developed a constitutional instrument to regulate the referendum. This will be discussed with the Department of the Attorney General and, hopefully, submitted to this session of Parliament, "she said.

She urged the ROPAA committee to organize its meeting starting with the Greater Accra region.

She said that stakeholders to consult include political parties, civil society organizations, clergy, the media and traditional authorities.

Ms Mensa said the Committee would also launch international consultations to gather the views of Ghanaians abroad and learn from the experience of other electoral management bodies.

"The Committee is expected to present a detailed report to the Commission by the end of May 2019," said Ms Mensa.

She said that the inspection of political party offices would take place in February and March, adding that opinions had already been served on political parties.

She added that an announcement in this direction had also been published in the Daily Graphic and Daily Guide newspapers.

Ms. Mensa said in the by-election of the Ayawaso West Wuogon Parliamentary Assembly: "The Commission condemns the violence that occurred in the residence of the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC)".

"The Commission calls on political parties to work to solve the problem of militiamen within their respective political parties in order to prevent such incidents from happening again in the future.

Ms. Mensa stated that during the recent by-election, it was noted that the security officers could have better managed the clashes that took place at the NDC candidate.