EC to hold IPAC meeting today, NDC still expected to boycott

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’s voter registration exercise is expected to be held in two parts with the first one at 10 am and the second at 2 pm.

Political Parties have thus been divided into two groups along with the timelines with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) scheduled to take part in the morning meeting.

Ahead of this, however, the NDC says it will not be participating in the meeting.

The Party argues that the meeting has been improperly arranged.

Peter Boamah Otukonor, a Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, reminded that his side already walked out of an IPAC meeting on March 25 after raising some 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 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 but said 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 twelve other political parties have backed the move.

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.