Founder and leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Akwasi Addae, widely known as Odike, claims the Electoral Commission (EC) is being used as a tool against him.

According to him, the arbiter for all political parties has now turned into a tool for President Akufo-Addo to do as he pleases.

Reacting to the cancellation of his party’s certificate by the EC during an interview with Happy98.9FM’s ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ political talk show, he said, “Jean Mensa was brought in to destroy me by Akufo-Addo. As a party, all our documentations are intact. We have our head office around the Top Radio area and have offices in every region in the country. The UPP had its certificate cancelled because of me and not because we didn’t meet requirements.”

Odike claims he saw this coming as far back as the 2020 elections when Wontumi told him he will be unable to contest in the general elections.

The politician at the initial stages of the election went through all checks and was successfully okayed for the elections. He was even congratulated by the EC Chair, Jean Mensa only to hear in the news he had been disqualified 2 weeks after.

Decrying the unfair treatment meted out to him and his party by the EC, he called on Ghanaians to gather courage and support parties and individuals who speak against the government and its ills.

The Electoral Commission has struck out the names of some 17 political parties from Ghana’s political parties register.

Between May and June 2022, the EC embarked on a nationwide exercise to inspect the offices of all registered political parties in Ghana.

But after the exercise, the EC invoked Section 15 (3) (c) of the Political Parties Act of 2000, Act 574, which mandates it to cancel the registration of Political Parties which do not have offices at the National and Regional levels.

The affected political parties are; the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), United Front Party (UFP), United Development System (UDSP), Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere, Yes People’s Party (YPP), United Ghana Movement (UGM), Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), New Vision Party (NVP), Ghana Democratic Republican Party (GDRP), Ghana National Party (GNP), Power Unity Party (PUP), United Progressive Party (UPP), Reform Patriotic Democrats (RPD), People’s Action Party (PAP), United Renaissance Party (URP), National Reform Party (NRP), United Love Party (ULP).