The founder and leader of the All People's Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga, has threatened to go to court if the Electoral Commission (EC) does not sanction political parties that fail to meet all requirements by the May 31, 2016 deadline.

A statement from the EC last month signed by Deputy Chairman of Operations, Amadu Sulley, warned all political parties to submit audited accounts for the past year and further asked them to comply with the Political Parties law or face sanctions.

In an interview with Class News, Hassan Ayariga maintained that since the APC has painstakingly met all requirements, he expects the EC to apply the law to all the other parties.

“We have furnished the EC with all the constitutional requirements and the political party law 2000 (574), which states that: ‘All political parties must have at least two-thirds of offices across the nation’, and as we speak, the only party that has satisfied that requirement is the APC,” he stated.

“The other political parties have been given until May 31, I have the documents. Until 31st of May, if they are unable to furnish the EC, they will withdraw their licences and they will not be able to contest this election”, he said.

Dr Ayariga noted that the People’s National Convention (PNC), his former party, has only 10 offices and doubted if it could furnish the EC with 150 new district offices before the deadline.

Asked if the APC had sent its copy of audited accounts to the EC, the former PNC presidential candidate said “we have not done any by-election or any election, so, we cannot give them any audited account. Because they are saying any political party that has contested any by-election or any election must also submit audited accounts”.

“I am saying for the APC to be given a final certificate, they have done those checks. APC is not the only political party that went to the EC to acquire final certificate, there are other parties and they have gotten provisional certificates. There were parties that got provisional certificate before the APC but until now they have not been given the final certificate because they cannot satisfy the requirement. So if those parties have not been given final certificates because they cannot satisfy the requirement of the EC, why will other political parties who cannot equally satisfy those (other) requirements be allowed to contest,” he asked.

“I will send the EC to court if they refuse to withdraw their licences if they fail to meet the requirement by the end of May because the EC made the APC to go through such difficulties. We went through and we satisfied the requirement before we were granted the final certificate.

“It is not by chance, it is by hardworking and by satisfying the requirements. We are not talking; we are working, so, it is the constitutional mandate for all political parties to satisfy the EC requirement. So, even the NDC and the NPP, if they are not able to satisfy the requirements of the EC, I will personally take the EC to court to make sure they are disqualified from contesting in this election”.