Let’s make manifestoes living documents
Last Saturday, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) became the latest political party to launch its 2016 manifesto at a gathering in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region.
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Already, the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), the Independent People’s Party (IPP) and the United Progressive Party (UPP) have all launched their policy statements or manifestoes for the 2016 polls.
The dominant opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has given an indication that it will launch its manifesto on October 8, 2016.
The Daily Graphic would like to encourage the remaining political parties who are recognised by the Electoral Commission (EC) to launch theirs as quickly as possible.
Undoubtedly, manifestoes are important tools to ensure that the electorate are well informed.
It is, therefore, worrying that with barely two months to this year’s crucial elections, only a few of our registered political parties have released their manifestoes for public scrutiny.
The seeming delay in the presentation of this blueprint by the parties is difficult to explain, particularly when the same parties are seeking our mandate to rule the country.
The feet dragging on the release of political party manifestoes is untenable, to say the least. This has compelled some political analysts to conclude that the political parties are taking the electorate for a ride.
This is because even though the law guiding and regulating the conduct of political parties is silent on manifestoes, it is a moral obligation and proper for the parties to present their strategies early for the electorate to digest and ask the hows and whys to make informed decisions and choices on December 7.
Clearly, while the political parties have not breached any law, they ought to be aware that some voters critically assess manifestoes and also judge the performance of governments by their manifestoes.
The Daily Graphic strongly shares the position that without manifestoes, political parties will make it difficult for the electorate to make a fair decision and hold political actors accountable to their promises.
The attitude of some of the political parties is also detrimental to the electoral process, because an ill-informed electorate may make wrong decisions and choices which will be dangerous to the growth of multi-party democracy.
Now that the waiting game by the NDC is over, it is the hope of the Daily Graphic that efforts will be made by all the parties to step up issues-based campaigning as the December 7 elections draw closer.
The release of the manifestoes, in our view, must not only be timely; the ideas and plans must also be realistic and achievable, while timelines must be set for them.
The argument that Ghana is not a reading nation and for that matter manifestoes are needless is very pointless, to say the least, and insulting to the intelligence of the people.
The Daily Graphic notes with interest that the NDC manifesto has a plethora of good intentions but lacks the timelines for action.
Going forward, it will do this nation a lot of good if timelines are given to these great and laudable intentions which, when implemented, will bring great relief to the people.
But the political parties must bear in mind that at any given time a ruling party has a four-year mandate if elected.
