Mr Bernard Mornah, the Immediate Past Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), on Tuesday, observed that the nature of the country’s democracy does not help in sustaining minority political parties.
He therefore, called for a political party stakeholders’ forum to deliberate on how to sustain smaller parties within the political landscape.
Mr Mornah said this in an address read on his behalf at the Party’s 29th anniversary symposium on, “Consolidating Multi-Party Democracy, Sustaining Minority Parties.”
He said at the inception of the fourth republic, minority party representation was 11.43 per cent but presently the representation was nearing zero.
“This should be a worry to us because if you don’t have any number to show, you lose your bargaining power,” he stated.
Mr Mornah, therefore, underscored the need for smaller parties to come together and position themselves to increase their representation.
He said the merging of PNC and the Convention people’s Party (CPP) must be mutually beneficial to parties, adding, “If we are using one party name, we must also use the symbol of the other party to avoid people using the same name and symbol and claim to be a true Nkrumaist Party.”
Mr Mornah said funding in the smaller parties was also great worry and stressed the need for party leaders to explore funding opportunities to ensure the sustenance of smaller parties in the country.
He urged the media to allow minority parties to express their views on national issues without being tagged as being appendage of the ruling party or main opposition party.
Madam Nana Frimpomaa Sarpong KumanKuma, Chairperson of Convention People’s Party, CPP, observed that the country’s multi-party system had turned into a duopolistic, dominated by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress, and threatening the survival and general stability of small political parties.
“We need to break the overarching influence of the duopoly and make better sense of Ghana’s Multi-Party democracy to conform with the public service intentions of 1992 Constitution” she said.
Madam KumanKuma called for holistic discussions on political parties funding to identify an alternative strategies and appropriate mechanism to make political parties financially sound.
Mr Yaw Preko, Deputy Communication’s Director, NPP, in a solidarity message, on behalf the General Secretary of the Party, acknowledged the contributions made by minority parties to sustain Ghana’s democracy and making it a multi-party state, adding, the nation owned it a duty to help and maintained such small political parties to survive rather than suppress them.
Mr Edem Agbana, Deputy National Organiser of NDC, charged minority political parties to promote their ideologies and empower their leaders to speak on critical national matters.
GNA