The directive by the IEC for political parties to hold their biennial congress was obeyed by all the registered parties.

In December all political parties with the exception of GMC held congresses based on their various agenda of programmes. The officials of IEC attended all the congresses as I was informed. Thus, what’s next?

I have scourged over the Constitution, the Elections Act and the website of the IEC to see what law mandates the parties to hold their biennial congress and what happens if they failed to. It appears that the answer lies with the “GUIDELINES FOR ORGANISATIONS SEEKING REGISTRATION AS POLITICAL PARTIES UNDER SECTION 105 OF THE ELECTIONS ACT” published on the IEC website.

Clause 13 states that “the constitution of the political party requires it to hold a biennial congress”. That means as a condition for registering a political party, the constitution must contain a provision on the holding of a biennial congress.

If all the political parties have such provision and the IEC relied on that, then can it be reasonably and legally stated that all the parties have failed to conduct their congresses biennially.

The period between congresses showed that there were lapses of few months between their penultimate and recent congresses. The UDP’s last congress was on the 1 – 3 April 2016 and the last one was 7 – 10 December 2018 (2 years 9 months), APRC’s congress was on the 23 February 2016 and the latest was on the weekend of the 14th December (2 years 10 months), GDC was registered on the 11 May 2016 and its last congress was on the 28 – 30 December (2 years 6months) and PDOIS’ last congress was on 22 – 25 May 2015 and the latest on 28 – 30 December 2018 ( 3 years 6 months).

Other political parties did not have congress for a very long time. Thus the question is what did the IEC do to make sure that parties had congresses pursuant to the dictates of their constitution?

Can we say that parties have violated a term in their own constitution, especially the PDOIS which held theirs three years six months after their last one. Should they be penalized or the Commission should take the responsibility?

The available information on the website of the Commission showed that the last update of information about the parties was in October 2016.

I propose that the IEC upload the constitutions of the political parties on their website as well as every information supplied to the Commission under Section 104 and 105 of the Elections Act. Such information for public consumption will serve the ends of transparency, accountability and will strengthen democracy.

Finally, I will be surprised to know that the IEC officials have attended both congresses of the NCP. The political terrain has changed and is rocky, thus the commission must also become alive to its responsibilities. The sooner the better.

By Simon Sabally