Don't force EC to implement ROPAL

Mankessim (C/R), May 23, GNA - Don't force the Electoral Commission (EC) to implement the Representation of the People's Amendment Law (ROPAL) for the 2008 general election, Mr Felix Nyarko-Antwi, Vice Chairman of the Mfantseman West Constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has urged party functionaries.

Leave that decision to the EC, he said adding that, "The implementation of the Law is a prerogative of the EC". "We should allow the Commission to prepare well for its take-off", Mr Nyarko-Antwi, stated in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Mankessim, on Tuesday.

He noted that the entrenched position taken by the two leading parties on the implementation of the law posed a threat to "our fragile democracy".

Mr Nyarko-Antwi stated that the implementation of the Law would be "cost intensive" while there were other pressing issues such as the energy crisis, which also needed huge sums of money to solve. He expressed doubts if the government could raise enough money for the EC to implement the Law next year.

The NPP Constituency Vice Chairman noted that the Party won the last two general elections in 2000 and 2004 without the participation of Ghanaians in the Diaspora and said, "If now the party thinks it cannot win the 2008 elections without them, then there is something wrong and the leadership should sit up".

Mr Nyarko-Antwi called for more attention for the foot soldiers of the party to encourage them to work harder and said, "This is the only way to ensure that no other political party wrestled power from the NPP". 23 May 07