This forms part of the mandates by the Commission as enshrined in the Political Parties Act 2000 (Act 574) to inspect political party offices and monitor their activities, it stated.

“The Political Parties Act, 2000 (Act 574) mandates political parties to have offices at the national, regional levels and at least in two-thirds of the districts in the country,” the EC stressed.

In a letter addressed to the political parties, the Commission reiterated that it wanted to see “if the political parties are functioning and if they meet the requirements by Act 574, including having functioning offices, filing of their accounts at the EC and whether their offices are owned by them or rented.

“Accordingly, the commission is embarking on the inspection of offices of all the registered political parties from May 16 at the national, regional, district and constituency levels,” the letter said.

It urged all registered political parties to ensure their availability to ensure the smooth operation of the exercise and to hold themselves in readiness for the upcoming exercise.

The letter advised the leadership of the parties not to stop flouting Act 574 by making their offices function effectively and efficiently and not only in an election year, file their accounts at the Commission on regular basis as stipulated by the Act and also prove whether their offices were owned by them or rented so as to deepen their relationships between the EC and the political parties.