OccupyGhana Writes Letter To Attorney General And Majority Leader In Parliament
The letter dated Monday October 9, 2023 which was in possession of Soireenews.com Rt Hon Alban Bagbin was copied to Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, First of Deputy Speaker, Mr Andrew Asiamah Amoako, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah,Deputy Attorney-General, Diana Asonaba Dapaah, Deputy Attorney-General, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, Deputy Majority Leader of Parliament, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah and Deputy Minority Leader of Parliament, Mr Frank Annoh-Dompreh.
Freeman Koryekpor 
PRESSURE group, OccupyGhana has extended invitation to the Minister of Attorney-General & Minister of Justice Godfred Dame, Majority Leader of Parliament, Honourable Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu and the Minority Leader in Parliament, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson to co-sponsor and introduce a bill in Parliament that will specifically extend the current laws that provide and punish for public election offences, to cover party primaries and intra-party elections.
The letter dated Monday October 9, 2023 which was in possession of Soireenews.com
Rt Hon Alban Bagbin was copied to Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, First of Deputy Speaker, Mr Andrew Asiamah Amoako, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah,Deputy Attorney-General, Diana Asonaba Dapaah, Deputy Attorney-General, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, Deputy Majority Leader of Parliament, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah and Deputy Minority Leader of Parliament, Mr Frank Annoh-Dompreh.
Others include Majority Chief Whip of Parliament, Lydia Seyram Alhassan,First Deputy Majority Whip of Parliament, Habib Iddrisu, Second Deputy Majority Whip of Parliament, Kwame Agbodza, Minority Chief Whip of Parliament, Ahmed Ibrahim, First Deputy Minority Whip of Parliament Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe,Second Deputy Minority Whip of Parliament, Mrs Jean Mensah, Chairperson of Electoral Commission.
In a letter to these personalities, the press group writes that: "We believe that this will be the first step to stemming the now rampant vote-buying, intimidation, violence etc that have become associated with such elections."
OccupyGhana has been very concerned about the phenomena where persons use money and gifts to bribe voters and/or use intimidation, violence, personation, insults, tribalism, falsehoods, etc, against opponents in all elections.
These have grown to shockingly brazen levels, especially in party primaries to elect presidential and parliamentary candidates and intra-party elections to elect party officials.
Both the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) and the Representation of the People Act, 1992 (PNDCL 284) contain elaborate provisions that criminalise all of these acts. Persons convicted of such offences are liable to a range of fines, terms of imprisonment, and even disqualification from voting.
However, apart from the fact that these provisions are hardly seen to be enforced, these statutes refer only to ‘public elections,’ which, as seen under article 49 of the Constitution, may not cover party primaries and intra-party elections. This might explain why we see no prosecutions when these happen.
We therefore invite you, as the Attorney-General and as the parliamentary leadership of the parties with representation in the current Parliament, to co-sponsor and introduce a bill in Parliament that specifically extends the application of these existing offences to party primaries and intra-party elections.
The proposed amendment should also remove the requirement for the Attorney-General’s fiat before prosecutions may be commenced.
These, we believe, will indicate to Ghanaians that the government and the two leading parties want to banish this phenomenon from all of our elections, whether public or not, and to every extent possible and permitted by law. When passed, strict enforcement should breathe new anti-corruption life into our body-politic.
Gentlemen, your refusal, failure, or neglect to take this step will finally provide basis for the suspicion that the government and the two leading parties actively support, or are complicit in perpetrating, this wrongful conduct.
Yours in the service of God and Country,
