The largest opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC) has served notice of boycotting the crucial Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 27, 2020.
The Electoral Commission expects to brief the political parties on preparation for the voters’ registration exercise.
The political parties will be divided into two groups to allow for social distancing during the meeting.
But the NDC says the meeting has been improperly and illegitimately called hence its decision not to attend.
Peter Boamah Otokunor, the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC in a Citi News interview called on the Electoral Commission to put proper mechanisms in place and organise a legitimate IPAC meeting which decision can be accepted by all the stakeholders involved.
“The last IPAC meeting which was held on 25th March 2020, we raised various concerns which led to political parties boycotting and we (NDC) walked out. That meeting does not constitute a proper IPAC meeting because they had divided one committee into groups– you may want to call it double tracking– to decide on the same issue. And we think that with any such approach, you are not going to properly appreciate and understand the issue and contributions from various political parties and we believe that, decision making will be problematic. So we decide not to participate in that meeting because we raised a question earlier and we are waiting for a response which did not come so we decided to boycott the meeting because it was not going to serve the purpose for which it was called.”
Again, we thought the Electoral Commission would have learnt its lessons and now we have been called to another IPAC meeting on Wednesday with the same arrangement that we are going to have the meeting in two halves with some coming in the morning and some coming in the afternoon and we think this is an improper way or organising an IPAC meeting and it gives one the opportunity to perpetrate any mischief in the meeting and we think the National Democratic Congress cannot be part of that meeting. If the Electoral Commission is refusing to put in place the proper mechanism to hold a proper legitimate IPAC meeting which decision can be accepted by all stakeholders, then NDC [officials] are not going to participate in the Wednesday meeting and we have since relayed our concerns to the EC again,” he said.
New voters register and it related brouhaha
The Electoral Commission’s decision to compile a new voters’ register has been met with mixed reactions from the political front.
Whereas the NDC and some opposition parties are against the decision, the NPP and twelve other political parties have backed the move.Regardless of the resistance, the EC has decided to proceed with the exercise but subsequently, put it on hold following the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
Although the exercise is currently on hold following the COVID-19 pandemic, the EC says it will observe the necessary safety protocols if the time comes for the registration exercise to commence.
Source: Citinews- Accra
