Managing editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper, Ben Ephson, has said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been funding other smaller political parties.

The NPP and NDC, he noted, support these parties in order to keep them as competitors during elections.

In an interview on Prime Morning, Mr Ephson stated that some of the smaller political parties lack adequate funds to go about their operations and activities.

"Interestingly, it is the two big parties who have been funding them to stay uproot,” he asserted.

The Electoral Commission (EC) has published a list of 17 political parties whose registration it intends to revoke for failure to establish national and regional offices in the country.

In a statement, the electoral body said these parties have not met the requirements of the Political Parties Act 2000, after a nationwide exercise it undertook to inspect the offices of registered political parties from May 16 to June 29, 2022.

"I agree that they must be scrapped, and they have up to next week Thursday, October 20, 2022, to explain why they should not be scrapped," Ben Ephson argued.

He believes the majority of the parties use rented apartments as offices for their own political gain.

Meanwhile, he thinks claims by former President John Mahama that he is not certain whether he would contest the NDC flagbearer position or not is a “political talk.”