[ 2014-09-18 ]

GBA Wants Campaigns Restricted
The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) wants active
political campaigns in the run up to general
elections restricted to only three months.

Currently, political parties have close to a year
to do active campaigning but the bar is insisting
that the prolonged political activities are
negatively affecting the country's development.

At the GBA's annual general meeting currently
underway in Cape Coast, GBA President Nene
Amegatcher said the three months proposal was
ideal for the country since the political tension
associated with election years would be reduced.

'We must find a means to curtail political
campaigns possibly to the last three months before
elections. Politics has been made so attractive in
this country that the technocrats seeing the
benefits derived by their political superiors have
been struggling to be like them.'

The GBA President also added his voice to the call
on the Electoral Commission (EC) to take immediate
steps to implement the recommendation of electoral
reforms put forward by the Supreme Court after the
landmark presidential election petition that put
the country on tenterhooks.

In a related development, the Institute of
Economic Affairs (IEA), a policy analysis
think-tank, has urged the EC to publish
well-defined electoral programmes with what it
called 'definite timelines.'

The institute which has been organising
presidential debates in the country said in a
statement that it would be crucial to ensure
'clarity' and 'certainty' in the minds of both the
EC and political parties regarding all that must
be done before general elections.

'The Electoral Commission must avoid crash time
table in the conduct of future elections in Ghana
as this does not promote the cause of both the EC
and the political parties,' the institute said.

It said as far as it was concerned, the EC should
particularly put timelines on the opening of
voters' register and registration of voters who
might have turned 18 or who have not registered
already, exhibition of voters' register, periods
that political parties are expected to receive
copies of the voters' register as well as all
other pre-election activities that the EC intends
implementing.

'The trust to be built through this process could
help ensure proper collaboration between the
political parties and the EC towards the conduct
of credible and largely uneventful elections,' it
added.

Source - Daily Guide

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