EC Chairperson engaging in disrespect – Odike

The leader of the United Progressive Party, Akwasi Addai Odike has said Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Adukwei Mensa is engaging in actions that disrespect his personality and further seeks to undermine his political party. 

His accusation comes at the back of notice served to revoke the registration of 17 political parties if they fail to respond in writing justifying why they should be maintained on the electoral roll.

According to the electoral management body, all the 17 listed political parties have no national and regional offices as required by the Act governing political parties.

Reacting to the development in an interview on Citi FM, Mr. Odike argued that the commission already has the required information because they were provided ahead of previous elections.

“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. 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” he said.

Meanwhile political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo, has backed the approach by the EC and called on all stakeholders to support in its bid to enforce the regulatory mandate.

“Democracy is expensive, so if you have political parties worth their salt, and they satisfy all the requirements that make them political parties and say we practice multi-party democracy, then they should all be on the ballot papers if we have the resources.”

“So the need to cut off these parties shouldn’t be because they are expensive to maintain but because they are not political parties but election machines. The EC can invoke some aspects of the Political Parties Act to cancel their registration and if they disagree, they can go to court”, he said.