The Electoral Commission (EC) is under more pressure to organize an emergency meeting with all political parties before the commencement of next month’s voter registration exercise.
The latest to join the call is the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) who are advising the EC to implement certain measures before next month’s exercise.
Policy Think Tank, the Danquah Institute and the People’s National Convention (PNC) have both called on the EC to put the whole exercise on hold till an audit is carried out on the 2012 voter register.
The General Secretary of the NPP, Kwabena Agyapong in an interview on the Citi Prime News a repetition of an election petition in the next election will not be in the best interest of Ghana.
He stated that it is imperative for the EC to audit the voters register “and there should be a re-duplication exercise to clean the register before we move on.”
Mr. Agyapong revealed the General Secretaries of all the major political parties in Ghana have appended their signatures to a letter under the auspices of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) to the Electoral Commission calling for an emergency meeting to address the concerns of the parties.
According to him, there has not been any Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting since 2012 “and we are now in the midst of another political cycle and I think it is not right.”
He called for an effective collaboration between the EC, the political parties and other stakeholders “and that is why we have called on the Electoral Commission to call for this urgent meeting so that we can discuss the issues that are worrying to us.”
The EC on Thursday told Citi News, an IPAC meeting will take place but the registration exercise will go on as scheduled.
But the NPP’s general secretary says political parties are expecting an official response from the EC on their resolve to go ahead with the exercise.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana