The ‘Smaller’ opposition political parties in Ghana have complained about being excluded in the dialogue on the disbandment of the political vigilante groups.
According to representatives of some of the opposition parties, due to their numbers, they had been sidelined most of the times when it comes to solving national issues.
Meanwhile, they claimed they were capable of contributing to the ensuring the disbandment of political vigilantism in the country.
The two leading political parties in the country, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) were to meet on Tuesday to start a dialogue towards the disbandment of political vigilante groups under the auspices of the National Peace Council.
This followed the tensions during the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency by-election where the government was accused of engaging in state-sponsored political violence.
The National Peace Council invited both parties for the said meeting following the president’s call for them to meet to resolve the issue of political party vigilantism in the country.
The National Peace Council selected the date and venue for the meeting which in order to give the Council the opportunity to table a number of proposals and modalities for disbanding such groups.
In a letter, the Council advised that “for effective discussions, each party was respectively expected to bring not more than seven representatives.”
Speaking on Atinka TV’s Flagship Morning show, Ghana Nie, the National Organiser for People's National Convention (PNC), Desmond Twumasi Ntow, said that, “They should know that we the smaller parties have a lot to contribute,” he said.
According to him, although Ghana was running a multi-party system, it looked as if all the attention had been geared towards two sides only, making the other parties seem irrelevant.
“We have agreed on a multi-party system but when something occurs, it’s only the two parties people focus on. Sometimes when they come into power, they poach some of the people in the smaller parties and when they have to work, they are mostly sidelined or are not even given what they need to work effectively,” he said.
Twumasi Ntow then called for the involvement of smaller opposition parties in addressing issues concerning the country.
On the same show, the Founder and Leader of Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Percival Kofi Akpaloo, however, confirmed that his party had also not been invited for the vigilante meeting.
He also recognised the need to involve other opposition parties in such issues for the good of the country.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com | Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori