The Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) on Wednesday accused functionaries of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) of flagrant use of public platforms paid for with public funds to campaign for their candidates. “The People’s Assemblies held in the Lawra and Jirapa Constituencies in the Upper West region were turned into NPP rallies. The incumbent Member of Parliament for Lawra in particular used the platform paid for with public funds to campaign for himself and the NPP flag bearer,” a CDD-Ghana pre-election monitoring report stated. CDD-Ghana said it deplored public platforms paid for with public funds to be used by public officials contesting the December polls for personal and or partisan campaigns. It therefore urged the officials to stop the abuse or abdicate their position to avoid the conflict of interest. The report, which was compiled by the Coalition of Domestic Election observers (CODEO) under the auspices of CDD-Ghana also focused on growing concerns about delay in the commencement of the limited voter registration exercise by the Electoral Commission (EC). The report further indicated that NPP parliamentary primaries were characterised by allegations of lack of transparency in the nomination process and imposition of candidates by party executives. “Vote buying was rife in some of the primaries. Use of items such as clothes, television sets as well as huge sums of money were distributed to delegates to solicit their votes,” the report stated. CDD-Ghana therefore called on political parties especially NPP to clarify the ambiguities surrounding its qualification criteria to avoid controversies and the resort to ad hoc rules. It also urged the EC to expedite arrangements for the commencement of the limited voters’ registration exercise and keep the public duly informed to avoid throwing the electoral calendar off gear. The report concluded that campaign by the various political parties was relatively peaceful except the road accident involving some jubilant supporters of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Northern Region. CDD-Ghana therefore appealed to the political parties to strictly adhere to road safety regulations in their campaigns and jubilation to avoid unwarranted fatalities. Source: GNA