Ghana: PPP is formally recognised as a legitimate political party

The opposition People's Progressive Party (PPP) - founded by former Convention People's Party (CPP) leader Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom following his controversial departure from the CPP - received its official political party certificate from the Electoral Commission (EC) last week in Accra. The party, which had earlier received a provisional certificate from the EC, is now set fair to contest the 2012 elections. Under the Electoral Law, however, the PPP must both declare its assets and provide additional information to the EC within 90 days of final certificate receipt or risk revocation of the certificate.

Assuming that the PPP completes these formalities, the CPP, in particular, should have additional competition in the forthcoming elections, to add to its recent woes caused by defections following Nduom's departure. None of this changes the reality that the elections will be a two horse race between the incumbent NDC and opposition NPP, with the fragmentation of the existing minor parties perhaps reducing their influence.

Nduom, upon hearing the favourable news, claimed that the PPP would “conduct ourselves properly”, and to “protect the integrity of the elections”. This is something that should be easier for the smaller parties while the heavyweight NDC and NPP fight all the way in an election that promises to be extremely close. He also criticised the President, claiming that Mills' recent claims of unprecedented success should be deemed to refer to the “unprecedented” scale of the payment to NDC financier Alfred Woyome because “never in the history of this country has the state dished out such a huge sum of money to an individual as a judgement debt”.

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