EC deploys staff to inspect party offices

General News of Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Source: citinewsroom.com

2019-03-26

The Electoral Commission (EC) has deployed staff to inspect the offices of political parties and monitor their activities.

The exercise should take place tomorrow in the 10 regions of the country.

Already, the EC has inspected the national offices of political parties and will continue inspection in the districts after the regional inspection.

The exercise is supported by the Law on Political Parties (Law 574), which emphasizes the presence of all political parties throughout the country, including offices at the national and regional levels and in two thirds of the country's districts. .

However, there is a growing concern that the EC has been lenient with regard to the political parties that are expected to come forward during the elections before retreating. But the EC says that she will not give up her homework anymore.

Context

The Political Parties Act 2000 (Law 574) obliges political parties to have offices at the national and regional levels and in at least two-thirds of the country's constituencies.

However, a 2015 EC report showed that out of the 23 political parties registered with the commission, only the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) fulfilled the conditions of physical presence in at least 144 countries . 216 districts.

The report cited the Convention People's Party (PCP), the National People's Convention (NPC), the National Democratic Party (NDP), the National Reform Party (NRP), the Progressive People's Party (PPP), the Grand National Consolidated People's Party (GCPP). ) and other parties as not meeting this requirement.

He said he noticed a trend that some alleged party offices were not even painted with party color.

As could be expected, the 2015 report indicated that the NDC and NPP had 195 and 200 district offices respectively.

As a result of this report, a number of civil society organizations and governance institutions have called on the EC to fully sanction political parties for non-compliance with the law 574.