Change electoral calendar – IPAC urges EC
Akosombo, May 12, Ghanadot/GNA
– Seven Political Parties on Tuesday called for Constitutional
review of the electoral calendar to ensure a smooth transition
period.
They were of the view that the period specified for the election
of Members of Parliament, should be amended to be in consonance
with the provisions on the period specified for the election of
a President.
According to Article 63 (2) (a) of the 1992 Constitution, the
election of the President “shall be held so as to begin not
earlier than four months nor later than one month before his
term of office expires.”
Article 112 (4), on election of Parliamentary Candidate
stipulates that a general election of members of Parliament
shall be held within 30 days before the dissolution of
Parliament. This provision means that the parliamentary
elections cannot be held earlier than December 7.
The political parties through the Inter-Party Advisory Committee
(IPAC) made the suggestion at a self-assessment forum organised
by the EC in collaboration with KAB Governance Consult and the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) under the
“Safeguarding the Integrity of the Ballot Project” at Akosombo.
The parties are the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC),
New Patriotic Party (NPP), Convention Peoples’ Party, Democratic
Freedom Party (DFP), and Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD)
stated at the fourth in a series of post election
self-assessment consultative forum.
Other parties that participated are; Ghana National Party (GNP),
Peoples National Convention (PNC), and the Great Consolidated
Popular Party (GCPP).
The parties noted that the difficulties encountered during the
last election, which lead to a short transitional period called
for a review of the electoral calendar to ensure that the
incoming and outgoing government have enough time for
transition.
The parties also called on EC to develop appropriate and
transparent procedure for the recruitment of both permanent and
temporary officials to ensure the integrity of EC personnel and
the process.
The EC was also tasked to enhance the capacity of its
Information Technology Department in order to cope with new
trends in data management.
The parties called for continuous electoral education for all
stakeholders to deal with electoral acrimony and antagonism.
In an interview with Ghana News Agency, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofu,
Eastern Regional Minister called on the EC and the Police
Administration to institute investigation into electoral
allegations by NDC and NPP during Elections 2008.
While the NDC accused the NPP of intimidating and beating its
official in its stronghold of the Ashanti Region, the NPP was
also alleged to have accused the NDC of killing its polling
agents in the Volta Region.
Nana Ohene Ntow, NPP General Secretary supported the call for
investigation to establish the truth or otherwise of the
allegations to ensure that the nation develops the necessary
mechanism to avoid these occurrences.
GNA
