Prof. Prempeh Urges EC to Stop Smaller Parties from Functioning as Proxies for NPP and NDC

The Executive Director of the Center for Democratic Development-Ghana, Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh, has just raised some very important concerns over the integrity of Ghana's electoral process in what can be described as an important speech. The renowned legal scholar criticized the approval by the Electoral Commission of 13 candidates to contest the forthcoming 2024 presidential election in a speech delivered on the occasion of the First Anniversary Lecture in honor of the late legal icon Akoto Ampaw, stressing some of these small parties had questionable validity.
He said these smaller political parties were not the contestants but were proxy parties for the two leading ones: NPP and NDC. This assertion follows an event where the EC announced in September 2024 that only 13 out of 24 applicants qualified for the December 7 elections.

These proxy parties, Prof. Prempeh said, distort the democratic landscape and perpetuate a duopolistic political culture. "We operate a highly polarized winner-takes-all political system," he observed and wondered how true electoral exit strategies could exist. He added that the heightened vetting process by the EC would, over time, reduce the number of candidates on the ballot paper since only those who indeed meet the requirements necessary are allowed to contest.

Prempeh's critique extends even beyond the candidates themselves into the very role of the EC. He said that were the Commission to adopt a more scrupulous approach to vetting, then the prevalence of proxy parties would decline and continue to allow for a healthy and competitive political environment. Moving toward elections in Ghana, could have important implications for democracy's future.