WHAT IS THE EC WAITING FOR?

ON our front page today is the story that only three out of the eight political parties were able to file their statements of account for the year 2006 at the Electoral Commission (EC) in compliance with the Political Parties Act, Act 574, 2000. While some of the parties have defaulted since 2000, others have partially fulfilled the obligations in accordance with the law.
The Daily Graphic finds this situation quite worrying because of the importance of political parties in the governance process of the country. According to the law, political parties may participate in shaping the political will of the people or disseminate information on political ideas, social and economic programmes of national character and also help the people to influence the composition and policies of the government.
The least the electorate expect from our political parties is for them to take the lead in upholding the rule of law and democratic principles so that our decision in 1992 to adopt the democratic system of government will yield fruitful results. Anything to the contrary will really take us into a state of lawlessness and anarchy.
The political parties flout the provisions in Act 574, which requires that “a political party shall, within six months after a general or by-election in which it has participated, submit to the commission a detailed statement in such form as the commission may direct of all expenditure incurred for that election”.
The political parties are also required to have branches in all the regions and in addition, be fully organised in not less than two-thirds of the districts in each region. But is that the real picture on the ground?
In the past, the EC had rationalised its inability to enforce the laws to the letter with the flimsy excuse that if that was done, no political party would meet the standards set by the law. The EC also explained that it decided to treat the parties with kid gloves in order to allow them to grow to take steps to meet the requirements of the law.
It is an undeniable fact that our democracy is growing and the political parties, being one of the bulwarks of our democracy, must be nurtured and encouraged to stand the test of time.
But what makes the excuse of the EC untenable is the fact that political parties that seek the mandate to rule and make laws for the people must first respect the rule of the law. For, after all, example, they say, is better than precept.
Currently, there is a strong lobby for state funding of political parties. The taxpayer will feel comfortable to pay more when those entrusted with state funds demonstrate transparency and accountability in the discharge of their stewardship.
As of now, the political parties are yet to demonstrate openness in campaign financing and total expenditure in relation to their operations. The Daily Graphic, therefore, calls on the EC to act quickly to sanitise the political system to avoid the situation where one day someone calls the whole electoral process into question on account of our utter disregard for the rules and regulations that we have crafted for ourselves.
The EC must go beyond the rhetoric and let the axe fall on the deviant political parties so that a clear signal will be sent to all, especially new ones, that from now on it will not be business as usual and that those who seek our mandate to govern must uphold the rule of law.