Odike accuses EC of disrespect after notice to cancel registration of 17 parties

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.

“This woman [Electoral Commission Chair] doesn’t respect me as a person. Even when I want to meet her to discuss something, never has this woman allowed me to meet her,” Mr. Odike complained on Eyewitness News.

The Electoral Commission wants these parties to respond in writing justifying why they should be maintained on the country’s political parties list because they have no national and regional offices as required by the Act governing political parties.

Between May and June 2022, the EC embarked on a nationwide exercise to inspect the offices of all registered political parties in Ghana.

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.

Mr. Odike argued that the commission already has the required information because they were provided ahead of previous elections.

“All the information was provided to them, so I don’t understand why she makes a U-turn to throw into the public space that they cannot find our offices.”

“Sometimes 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.”Mr. Odike also criticised the commission for making this information public.“When we write to EC we don’t put it in the public domain, so they must accord us that respect,” he said.

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Source: citinewsroom.com