The National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) has urged political parties to desist from malicious campaigns and concentrate on issues of national importance. Speaking at a forum in Accra, the Accra Metropolitan Director of the NCCE, Mr Ebenezer Tetteh-Wayo, said political parties were established to create a common platform for people to present their ideas and help build a better society. The forum was to round off activities marking this year’s constitutional week which was on the theme: “The role of political parties in Ghana’s democratic dispensation.” “There are a number of incidents that raise serious questions and doubts about how political parties are organised and run in the country. The kinds of issues that are raised on political platforms almost invariably neglect the core functions of parties and issues affecting the development of the country,” Mr Tetteh-Wayo said. He said political parties had not sought to promote national unity, harmony and integration, adding that some had rather deepened the existing divisions within the society. “At election time, people are misled by false propaganda and deliberate falsehood. Since each party strives to win elections at all cost, they quite often suppress the truth. In addition, political parties have created a partisan attitude; every political party emphasises its own interest and adopts methods to strengthen it,” he said. “In this self seeking process, the parties become indifferent to national issues and interest. They try to subordinate national interest and their only aim is to win elections,” he added. Mr Tetteh-Wayo, said partisanship was also manifest in Parliament which had become a battlefield with the party in power supporting all bills and the opposition parties trying to defeat them. He said bills were not always considered on their merit, but merely on party alignment. Mr Tetteh-Wayo noted that parties in opposition usually remained antagonistic to the parties in power while those in power displayed arrogance in their relationship with the opposition because of their numerical strength and, added that, it did not augur well for a harmonious relationship and was not conducive for national unity and integration. Mr Tetteh-Wayo urged political parties to desist from all those negative practices and make a change for the better. He exhorted them to train their agents and supporters to sharpen their knowledge on the electoral process, educate them on the electoral procedures and quit from the use of “macho” men to molest and intimidate party opponents and to disrupt the voting process. “They should avoid organising the youth to deface posters of other party members, destroy and remove flags of opponents and also desist from corrupting voters and other officials connected with the electoral process,” he added. The Member of Parliament for Ayawaso East, Dr Ahmed Mustapha, advised the public to join political parties based on their programmes and not because of the perception that they were aligned to particular ethnic groups. Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana