Thirteen-member Election 2012 national enforcement body set-up

Ghana on Monday set-up a 13-member National Enforcement Body for Election 2012 with a mandate to reprimand any political party that engages in undemocratic electioneering activity which has the propensity to endanger the peace and stability of the country.

The Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, Chairman of the National Peace Council, heads the enforcement body, with Justice Francis Emile Short, former Commissioner of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Ameer Dr Maulvi Wahab Adam, Head of the Ahmadiayya Muslim Mission and Ms Hillary Gbedemah, of The Law Institute as members.

Other members include Mr Ransford Tetteh, President of the Ghana Journalists Association; The Rev. Father Patrick M. Amos of the National Catholic Secretariat; Mr Paul Manly Awini, Director of Operations of the Ghana Police Service; Mrs Augustina Akosua Akumanyi, Deputy Chairman National Commission for Civic Education and Mr David Adeenze-Kangah, Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission.

The rest are Mr Danny Annan, representing the National Democratic Congress; Mr Abdulai Fulamba, New Patriotic Party; Mr Kwame Jantuah, Convention People’s Party; Mr Atik Mohammed of the Peoples National Convention; and Mr George Dowokpor of the Progressive Peoples Party.

The National Enforcement Body is tasked to awaken the political parties to the fact that their electioneering activities are being monitored and any party that violates the Code will be tagged as a “violent party,” and named and shamed in the newspapers and on the air waves.

The Enforcement Body set-up under the management of the Institute of Economic Affairs, is also mandated to monitor the conduct of the political parties and their supporters to ensure they conform to the Election 2012 Political Parties Code of Conduct.

Speaking at the official inauguration in Accra, Brigadier-General Francis Agyemfra (RTD) of the IEA said the conduct of peaceful elections continued to pose a critical challenge, hence the urgent need to establish systems and bodies to strengthen the democratic system for peace, security and stability.

“Peaceful elections are key indicators of the good health of a democratic system,” he said.

The Code of Conduct for political parties 2012 sets out guidelines by which the parties and their supporters agree to be bound by set rules in the course of their campaign and electioneering activities.

It covers a broad range of matters including abuse of incumbency, defacing of posters, biased media reporting and campaign violence.

The Enforcement Body is required to investigate all reports received from the regions and sanction those in breach of the code. The body will publish the findings of its investigations and, where necessary, alert the security agencies and other appropriate State institutions for further action to be taken.

The mandate of the regional enforcement bodies are to hold monthly meetings to discuss issues pertaining to any breaches of conduct, travel round the region to monitor the campaigns, rallies and other activities of the political parties.

In addition, they will investigate allegations at the regional level, prepare reports and submit them to the national enforcement body.**