Political Science Lecturer at the Methodist University, Dr Osei Bonsu has opined that the Electoral Commission (EC) is failing Ghanaians as it allows some political parties to operate even though they do not meet the requirements of the law.

Speaking in an interview with Sefa Danquah on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ show, he explained: “there is a law that states that before a political party is granted a certificate to run as a political party, you must have a national office and have offices of at least two-thirds of the districts. Let’s look at the parties that stood for elections. How many of them have offices in even one-quarter of the districts in the country. The EC gave them the chance to stand for elections.

So I think it is the EC that has failed and not the political parties. The EC as the supervisor gives certificate even when these political parties do not have headquarters not to talk about offices in districts. I believe that over the years the EC has been relaxed with the laws”.

According to him, this action has unfavourable consequences on Ghana’s democracy and it is thus important we check to make sure things are done right.

In the run-up to elections, seventeen (17) presidential candidates filed nominations to contest the elections. However, the Electoral Commission (EC) cleared 12 presidential aspirants to contest while five aspirants were disqualified for breaching aspects of the nomination process.

Out of the 12 qualified candidates, 11 were sponsored by political parties, while one was an independent candidate.

Among the conditions for registering a political party, the Constitution of Ghana states that a political party cannot be registered unless “the party has branches in all the regions and is, in addition, organized in not less than two-thirds of the districts in each region; there is in each district at least one founding member of the party who is ordinarily resident in the district or is a registered voter in the district.”