DPP SUES 4 POLITICAL PARTIES IN PARLIAMENT

AN Accra High Court has fixed December 19, 2007, for the hearing of a motion for an order of interlocutory injunction filed by the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) against the four political parties with representation in Parliament and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) for violating the Political Parties Law relating to the foreign funding of political parties.
The court on Monday took a very serious view of the matter and stated that the defendants were being given the chance to appear in court on the next adjourned date.
The matter was adjourned after a former General Secretary of the PNC, Mr Gabriel Pwamang who was in court had prayed for an adjournment because the defendants had not filed their affidavits in opposition although they had entered appearance.
The DPP said that the Dutch-IMD- IEA funding for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), People’s National Convention (PNC) and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) was illegal and unlawful as it violates section 24 and 25 of the Political Parties Law 2000, Act 574.
It said that there were 10 registered political parties in Ghana whose activities were governed by the political parties law section 23 of which states that only citizens of Ghana may contribute in cash or kind of funds of a political party.
The section further states that a firm, partnership or enterprise owned by a citizen or a company registered under the laws of Ghana at least 75 per cent of whose capital was owned by citizen was for the purposes of the Act a citizen.
Section 24 of the Act states that a non-citizen shall not directly or indirectly make a contribution or donation or loan whether in cash or in kind to the funds held by or for the benefit of a political party shall be demand or accept a contribution, donation or loan from a non-citizen.
The DPP is seeking for an order of interlocutory injunction against the defendants to suspend with immediate effect further operations of the Dutch-IMD- IEA programme for the funding of the parties because the programme introduced discrimination into the multiparty system and destroyed the level playing field component of democracy.
It is also seeking an order to enable the defendants to refund all the moneys paid to them under the programme or faced sanctions which could include being restrained from taking part in further elections.
Furthermore, the plaintiff is seeking an order to enable the defendants to furnish the court with all records on the operations of the Dutch IMD-IEA funding scheme, especially records on moneys paid or spent and received by the four political parties.
According to the DPP, the moneys should be refunded to the Electoral Commission (EC) in accordance with the requirement of Section 25 (c) of the political party law.
In an affidavit to support the motion, the DPP said that since 2002, the NPP had sought to exhaust every internal channels of redress against the decision of the Dutch NGO to extend financial assistance to the four political parties in breach of the law.
According to the DPP, section 25 of the Act stipulated that when any person contravened sections 23 and 24, in addition to any penalty that might be imposed under the Act, any amount whether in cash or in kind shall be forfeited to the state and the amount shall be recovered from the political party as a debt owed the state.
It said that in spite of the firm provisions debarring foreign bodies from giving financial assistance directly or indirectly to political parties, the Dutch NGO reached an agreement with the IEA by which the four political parties were given assistance in cash and kind to the detriment of the other political parties, thereby creating an uneven playing field in the political arena in contravention of the law.