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Otabil takes parties to task |
| The General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church, Rev Mensah Otabil, yesterday appealed to the various political parties in the country and their activists to desist from all practices that could frustrate the various efforts being made to ensure peaceful and incident-free elections in December. |
The widely respected Man of God noted that the nation's democratic development was gradually coming of age, adding that it was incumbent on the entire citizenry, especially activists of the various political parties, to behave in a responsible manner to prove to the entire world that the nation remained the beacon of hope and democracy for the rest of Africa.
"We claim to be the Black Stars of Africa so let us shine forward on our way to consolidating our democracy for the rest of the continent and the world at large to know that our democracy has really come of age. We must leave our childish behaviour behind and increasingly act with more wisdom, decorum and restraint,” he stressed.
He was launching the Political Parties Code of Conduct 2008, which spells out the guidelines agreed upon by all the registered political parties as the required measures to ensure the smooth conduct of this year's elections.
The document was prepared by the nine recognised political parties in collaboration with the Institute of Economic Affairs with assistance from the Netherlands Institute for Multi-party Democracy and the support of the National Commission for Civic Education.
A national enforcement body meant to monitor the political parties to ensure that they abide by the adopted code was also inaugurated.
Rev Otabil observed that the new code has the unique provision which seeks to strengthen the enforcement process that will be overseen by an Inter-Party Monitoring Committee with powers to investigate breaches of the code and sanction offending parties.
"We trust that all the signatory parties will cooperate to ensure that the labour expended in crafting this code will not be frustrated," he added.
Nana Ohene Ntow, General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, maintained that the NPP tradition had always championed democracy even before the country’s independence and assured that the party was committed to free, fair and transparent elections in December.
He said NPP as the governing party has an obligation to ensure that the country’s democracy was sustained and entrenched saying, "our party will do nothing to compromise the process of the outcome of the 2008 elections."
Kwabena Adjei, National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress, also assured that his party would play by the rules.
Representatives of the nine political parties, each person from Electoral Commission, National Commission on Civic Education and Institute of Economic Affairs constitute the enforcement body.
Reverend Deegbe of the Christian Council of Ghana is the chairman of the enforcement committee.
The parties among other things have agreed that the national enforcement body established in 2004 should be activated and replicated at the regional and district levels. They also want government to set up a Security Task Force to work closely with the Electoral Commission at the national, regional and district levels in dealing with election-related issues.
The Code further enjoins political parties, candidates, party members, agents and party workers to avoid all activities constituting electoral offences such as offering gifts and gratification on inducing other persons to stand or not to stand as candidates, withdraw or not to withdraw their candidature, as well as bribing of voters and officials and party agents and canvassing within the precincts of polling stations of polling day and refrain from public meetings within 48 hours of the polls.
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