Introduce Bill to extend laws on election offences to party primaries - OccupyGhana to AG, Parliamentary leaders
The group says it was concerned about the phenomena of vote-buying, intimidation, and violence, that have become associated with such elections, and that a Bill of that kind would be a first step to ending such incidents.
Pressure group, OccupyGhana, wants the Attorney-General and leaders of both sides in Parliament to co-sponsor and introduce a bill that will extend the current laws on election offences to party primaries and intra-party elections.
In a statement, the group says it was concerned about the phenomena of vote-buying, intimidation, and violence, that have become associated with such elections, and that a Bill of that kind would be a first step to ending such incidents.
"We invite you, as the Attorney-General and as the parliamentary leadership of the parties with representation in the current Parliament, to co-sponsor and introduce a bill in Parliament that specifically extends the application of these existing offences to party primaries and intra-party elections. The proposed amendment should also remove the requirement for the Attorney-General’s fiat before prosecutions may be commenced.
“These, we believe, will indicate to Ghanaians that the government and the two leading parties want to banish this phenomenon from all of our elections, whether public or not, and to every extent possible and permitted by law. When passed, strict enforcement should breathe new anti-corruption life into our body-politic,” the statement said further.
Ghana's Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) and the Representation of the People Act, 1992 (PNDCL 284) contain elaborate provisions that criminalise acts of vote-buying and violence during elections.
However, these statutes refer only to ‘public elections,’ which, as seen under article 49 of the Constitution 1992, may not cover party primaries and intra-party elections.
