The Electoral Commission is today [Wednesday] expected to hold an Inter-Party Advisory Committee meeting on the compilation of a new voters register.
The meeting to provide updates on the commission plans for the register is expected to be held in two groups with the first one at 10 am and the second at 2 pm.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) were scheduled to take part in the morning meeting.
But the NDC has indicated that it will not be participating in the meeting because it believes that it has been improperly arranged.
Peter Boamah Otokunor, a Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, explained that his side already walked out of an IPAC meeting on March 25 after raising similar concerns.
“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 an 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.”
But the NPP has described the NDC’s decision as unsurprising insisting that the electoral process will not be deterred.
Evans Nimako, the Party’s Director of Elections, also noted that the NDC has “boycotted a number of key meetings with political parties.”
“We have 25 political parties in Ghana and find out if any of them are not honouring the invitation to the IPAC meeting. Ghana will run and they must brace themselves for it,” he added.
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 12 other political parties have backed the move.
Although the exercise is currently on hold, the EC says it will observe the necessary safety protocols if the time comes for the registration exercise to commence.
