A New Political Party -To qualify to contest elections

A Member of Council of State and Chancellor of the University of Education, Alhaji (Dr) Asoma Banda has suggested that the Political Party Law and the 1992 Constitution be amended in order to regulate the formation of political parties in the country.

He said, although per the 1992 constitution, everyone qualified has the right to form a political party and contest elections, it is his opinion that this has not helped the country in her quest to develop as far as democracy is concern.

In an exclusive interview with The Al-Hajj last Monday the Council of State Member and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Antrak Group of Companies suggested that for any new political party to contest an election, that party should also have been formed for a minimum of five years and should have offices in all constituencies and districts across the length and breadth of the country.

“All the due processes should have been followed including registration, proper party structures in every constituency and district and certification by the Electoral Commission before a party is allowed to contest an election. That way, our democracy will be strengthened,” he said.

Alhaji Banda bemoaned the current existing practice whereby any Tom, Dick and Harry who believes he or she has some few bucks to ‘waste’ can just get up few weeks to an election and decides to float a party to contest the polls, this the business magnate avers, makes a mockery of our democratic culture.

He suggested that for one to qualify to contest parliamentary elections, that person should have been a resident of the constituency for a minimum of five years.

Alhaji Asoma Banda also lamented the situation where people come from abroad especially Europe and Americas and because of their money, they are allowed to contest parliamentary elections without proper appreciation of even their own constituencies. This he said is not good for the country’s development as it doesn’t strengthen parliament as well as proper democratic development.

He added that people who come from abroad with whatever resources must be told to join the queue so that it is not the case that they are just adding to the numbers in parliament probably because of their financial clout and contributions to the political parties.

“We need seasoned politicians in our parliament. Parliament should not be a training ground where every four years new faces appear and disappear. Some people should be allowed to be in parliament for many years so that our parliament will be made up of seasoned and professional politicians to help grow our democracy”, he stated.

When asked what criteria will be used to allow some parliamentarians to be in parliament for long, Alhaji Asoma Banda said if the political parties were truly independent financially; this would be possible adding that, “the situation where every four years, a third of our members of parliament are new is not good for democracy”.