EC inspects offices of political parties
The Electoral Commission (EC) has commenced a nation-wide inspection of all registered political party offices in line with the Political Parties Act.
It is to ensure that all the registered political parties exist at the national, regional and, district levels.
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A Deputy Commissioner of the EC in charge of operations, Samuel Tettey, told the Daily Graphic that the inspection was to enable the EC to monitor and regulate the activities of the registered political parties in line with the political parties law and whether they do exist at the addresses and locations provided to the EC.
He said the team of officers conducting the exercise would submit a report to the EC for study.
Details
He explained that the Political Parties Act, 2000 (Act 574) mandated political parties to have offices at the national and regional levels and at least in two-thirds of the districts in the country.
Mr Tettey said the inspection teams would ascertain if the parties were functioning and met the requirements by Act 574.
He urged all political parties to ensure their availability to ensure the smooth operation of the exercise.
Mr Tettey, therefore, urged all registered political parties to hold themselves in readiness for the upcoming exercise," he stated.
Background
The last time the EC conducted such an exercise was in 2019.
Among other things, the inspection teams observed that there were cases where some political parties had been ejected from the office accommodation due to non-payment of rent while in some cases, although the political party offices were painted in party colours, the offices were being used as storage for foodstuff, cement and other building materials by the landlords.
In other instances, most of the political party offices in the districts lacked basic office furniture.
It was also observed that many of the political parties did not have staff manning the offices on regular or daily basis with more than 90 per cent of the offices having no electricity or running water.