‘EC’s decision to revoke 17 political parties licenses apt’

The Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) has supported the decision of the Electoral Commission (EC) to revoke the licenses s of 17 political parties for not having offices at the district, regional and national levels as required by the Political Parties Act 2000 (Act 574) governing them. 

It said the decision was apt, in the right direction which was long overdue and wondered why it had taken the Commission so long to take the decision.

“The LPG fully supports the EC in its decision to revoke the licenses of political parties in the minority since the Election Management Board is discharging its mandate aptly,” the party noted.

Kofi Akpaloo, the founder and leader of LPG, applauded EC for actually discharging its mandate because since they took office, they had been asking political parties to ensure every year they filed their audited accounts and now they had decided to crack the whip by asking them to have offices across the country. 

In a statement issued in Accra, the EC listed 17 political parties whose registration it intends to revoke for failure to establish national and regional offices in the country because they have not met the requirements of the Political Parties Act 2000 and gave them up to October 20, 2022 to show proof why their registrations should not be revoked.

Subsequently, it invoked Section 15 (3) (c) of the Political Parties Act of 2000 (Act 574) which mandates it to revoke the registration of political parties which did not have offices at national and regional levels.

The statement said the political parties were by the notice requested to show in writing to the EC why their registration should not be revoked and explained that it undertook a nationwide exercise to inspect the offices of all registered political parties from May 16, 2022 to June 9, 2022.

It said following the nationwide inspection, it came to light that the 17 political parties had no offices at the national and regional levels.