COUNTING LESS THAN 140 days to elections the National Elections Commission (NEC) is still certificating political parties – bringing the total for now to 26.
THE FOUR RECENTLY ADDED includes, Redemption for Democratic Congress, Democratic Justice Party, and Liberia for Prosperity Party and Liberia Restoration Party.
THIS PLETHORA IN THE VIEW of the NEC Chairman, Cllr. Jerome Korkoya signals that our democracy is maturing. Is it actually the case?
THE NUMBER IS MIND-BOGGLING and the names of many of these parties don’t even ring a bell. The public are often unaware of the activities these parties carry out.
THE NUMBER IN A WAY makes us a nation with a high degree of political consciousness but quantity doesn’t always reflect maturity and certainly not quality.
WHILE AS A COUNTRY, we are glad that we’ve finally moved on from a single party state to a multi-party system, the NEC must also ensure that these mushroom spring outs they abide the requirements governing political parties in the country.
It is not for nothing that there are rules and regulations governing the conduct of political parties in the country.
FOR POLITICAL PARTIES SEEKING to superintend over the affairs of the state and for that matter manage the resources of the country, it is incumbent on them to be accountable to the people they seek to govern.
WITHOUT ACCOUNTABLE AND transparent governance, development will be greatly impeded and it is for this reason that much is expected of our political parties to show and lead the way in making accountable governance a way of life.
REGRETTABLY, ONE AREA that the political parties have consistently showed little interest in is their adherence to the Law which mandates them to submit their audited statements of accounts to the NEC.
DOES THE NEC ENSURE THAT as required by law that the political parties have headquarters in all the 15 counties of Liberia?
THE TREND DEFINITELY CANNOT be allowed to fester and we need our political parties to be up and doing and not to take the people and the parties’ responsibilities towards the citizenry for granted.
FAILING TO CHECK THE COMPLIANCE of political parties with NEC Regulations would continue to create a situation where so-called politicians would only appear during election year, exploit the system for their own selfish gains and then disappear right after elections.
TOO MANY POLITICAL PARTIES without substance would not impact our democracy in anyway; many of these parties year-in-year-out have not made any improvement, as their many concern remains exploiting the electoral process.
THIS IS COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE to democracy and we certainly hope the NEC would begin to crack whip on non-compliant parties.
