A political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof Ransford Gyampo, has called for an independent body to regulate political parties in the country.

According to him, the Electoral Commission (EC) has not performed its functions properly and seems to be only interested in conducting elections.

"The EC has always been occupied with just voter registration and the conduct of elections over the years. As a result, they have not been able to prosecute their regulatory mandate of political parties effectively.

"Because the electoral commission, from 1992 up to now, has failed in regulating political parties, political parties are the most unregulated political institutions that we have," he said in an interview on Prime Morning on Thursday.

Prof. Gyampo maintained that the "electoral commission has shown interest in only compiling voters register and conducting elections, that’s what they’ve done."

In his view, it would only be needful for the state to consider engaging the services of an external body that will regulate political parties only to ensure that Ghana becomes a multi-party country.

"They [Electoral Commission] have not been able to regulate political parties to ensure that political parties have branches in all our districts; they have not been able to regulate political parties to ensure that we are truly a multi-party democracy."

He suggested: "Hide off the regulatory function of the electoral commission and give it to another independent body so that they would only focus on regulating political parties to ensure that they go according to the Political Parties Act, and do only what they are permitted to do."

Meanwhile, he has added his voice to government resourcing the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to deliver its mandate.

Prof Gyampo said the issue of corruption and monetisation of politics can properly be tackled when the Commission is resourced to educate the citizenry.

“Sometimes they receive funding from government, but it seems the funding is not enough. They receive funding from other donors, and this funding is not regular,” he bemoaned.