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Liberia: NEC Wants Budgetary Support for Political Parties
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The NEWS (Monrovia)
19 March 2008
Posted to the web 19 March 2008
Jimmey C. Fahngon
Monrovia
The Chairman of the National Elections Commission (NEC) James Fromoyan says his institution wants the enactment of a law that would allow budgetary appropriation from national resources for political parties in Liberia.
He said such funding should be provided by the government and perhaps administered by the NEC.
He, however, indicated that in order for a party to qualify for such funding, it should attain a threshold of 10 percent of the valid votes cast in a general and presidential elections.
Commissioner Fromoyan noted that beneficiaries of such support must maintain active national offices, a bank account of not less than the carrying balance as required by the NEC guidelines and submit certified annual audit report.
The NEC boss spoke Tuesday at a two-day workshop for political parties and civil society organizations in Liberia. The workshop was held on the main campus of the University of Liberia.
Additionally, he said political parties need to take appropriate measures to strengthen their by-laws and constitutions to avoid being used by power seekers as springboards which, he observed, has been the case in the past.
Moreover, Commissioner Fromoyan added that political parties are supposed to either oversee or control government depending on whether they are in government or opposition.
However, he lamented that most political parties often fail to perform these roles adequately or with sufficient credibility simply because they are fundamentally weak and rely on the personal appeal of their leaders.
These shortcomings, Mr. Fromoyan said, become a concern when they start to impact adversely on the functioning of democracy.
In order to prevent this from occurring, he stressed the need to capacitate political parties via the law that bring them into being in order to keep them functional.
The NEC Chairman then recommended that any group wishing to form a political party should obtain a membership of not less that 1000 qualified voters from two-thirds of the political subdivisions of the country instead of the 500 qualified voters.
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He further recommended that any group wishing to establish political party should establish functioning offices in at least two-third of the political subdivisions of the country.
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