All the 10 political parties in the country have called on the Executive and Parliament to give the requisite assistance for the establishment of the Political Parties Support Fund (PPSF) to provide resources to finance the legitimate activities of political parties. They, accordingly, called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to take the lead in securing early legislation for the establishment and operation of the fund. This formed part of resolutions adopted by the political parties at a retreat at Akosombo last Friday. Dubbed the "Akosombo Declaration", the resolution was signed by the Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Peter Mac Manu; the Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Kwabena Adjei, and the Second Vice-Chairman of the People's National Convention (PNC), Mr Ahmed Ramadan. The other signatories were the National Chairman of the Convention People's Party (CPP), Dr Edmund Delle; the Founder and Leader of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Mr Dan Lartey; the Founder and Leader of the Democratic People's Party (DPP), Mr T. N. Ward-Brew; the acting National Chairman of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), Mr Abdul Rahman Isakan; the acting Chairman of the Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere (EGLE) party, Mr Henry Gidi, and the General Secretary of the United Renaissance Party (URP), Nana Kofi. Reports available to the Daily Graphic indicate that although there was a representative of the National Reform Party at the retreat, no one signed for the party. The political parties also appealed to President Kufuor to provide the required support for such legislation. They said the role of the President was critical because Article 108 of the 1992 Constitution required that a bill with financial implications could only be introduced by the President. The parties committed themselves to work to improve their compliance with accounting and auditing requirements as demanded by the Political Parties Law. They said to ensure that such public support for political parties was not abused, a threshold of one percent of the total valid votes cast in the preceding presidential or parliamentary elections should be attained in order to access the fund. The participants expressed their sincere appreciation to the EC for providing the leadership in securing enhanced public support for political parties and further acknowledged the supportive role of the Fredriech Ebert Foundation and the KAB Governance Consult in making possible the consultative meetings on the subject matter. Source: Daily Graphic