DON'T FORM POLITICAL CLUBS IN VARIOUS PRISONS — BIN-SALIH (PAGE 15, 2010)

The Upper West regional second vice chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Hafiz Bin-Salih, has warned against the formation of political clubs in the various prisons since it has the potential of generating serious conflict between inmates on one hand and prison officers on the other.
“It can also lead to victimisation or maltreatment of prisoners when their views are at variance with the prison officers”, Mr Bin Salih pointed out.
He described the decision by the Supreme Court to give prisoners their voting rights as a step in the right direction.
According to him, Article 42 of the Constitution bestowed on every Ghanaian who is of a sound mind and has obtained the age of 18 or above to vote and by virtue of this, prisoners were eligible to vote.
“It is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court,” he stated, and called on the Electoral Commission to put in place mechanisms and structures to ensure that prisoners were catered for in future elections.
Sharing his personal views with the Daily Graphic in Wa, Mr Bin-Salih said provision should also be made to allow political parties to have access to the prisons so as to be able to sell their manifestos to them.
“Even though the decision is laudable it should not be implemented now, may be 2016 when all modalities have worked out. The EC should work painstakingly towards it, “ he added.
Touching on the filing fee of GHC 50,000 for presidential candidates of the NPP, the NPP regional second vice-chairman was of the opinion that there was nothing wrong with that since it would go a long way to deter large number of people from entering the race as happened about two years ago.
He called on the national executive of the party to expedite action on the appointment of the deputies for the national organiser, general secretary, women organiser, and youth organiser.
“Competence and regional balance should guide these appointments and the Upper East must be considered since it is the only region without an elected national executive officer”, he said.
Mr Bin-Salih advised the former Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, not to contest for the NPP flagbearership for the sake of his reputation
He said although the former veep had the democratic right “I think people would try to smear him just to score political points, which I do not think would be in his interest”.