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The President of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has advocated the creation of the Office of the Registry of Political Parties (ORPP) to regulate its activities in accordance with the Constitution.
Joseph Whittal said that the adoption of the ORPP by Ghana, as is the case in other countries, would ease some burdens (such as registering political parties, granting them a certificate and inspecting their audit statement) off the shoulders of the Electoral Commission (EC). ).
“Certainly the EC is overloaded with all the public elections and referendums, so adding a political party regulator or, as we call them ‘Registrar of Political Parties in other countries, I think is overkill,” Whittal said in the Launch of the Citizen Anti-Corruption Manifesto (MCCA).
“I know of other countries in Africa that have an independent political party registrar responsible for ensuring the registration of political parties, granting them certificates, reviewing their audit status and making sure they obey the laws.”
He cited that Papua New Guinea, a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean, had a political party registrar, which was independent of its Election Commission; stating that other countries in Africa have it too.
“So if the evidence shows that the EC has not been able to activate that aspect of its role for a long time, we should be thinking about removing it and giving it to an independent body that handles that aspect very well.”
He said that while Ghanaians were seeking to address the ongoing problem of campaign financing for political parties, they should also consider the structure that would handle it.
The MCCA report was compiled by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) and the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), with funding from the STAR-Ghana Foundation.
Its aim is to make the fight against corruption a key electoral issue in 2020 and thereby improve Ghana’s anti-corruption performance in the years to come.
GACC Executive Secretary Ms Beauty Emefa Narteh also expressed the hope that political parties will embrace the issues identified by citizens and be guided by the general recommendations to design their own specific approach to tackle corruption in Ghana.
