The Electoral Commission (EC) will hold an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting over concerns surrounding the commission’s plan to hold a limited voter registration exercise.
The four political parties with representation in parliament have objected to plans by the commission to open the register, insisting that a full blown audit should be done before a fresh registration.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), New Patriotic Party (NPP), Convention People’s Party (CPP) and People’s National Convention (PNC) say the 2012 election petition indicate the existing register is bloated.
Head of Research at the Danquah Institute, Nana Tobra Kwaku and the Peoples’ National Convention’s National Youth Organiser Abu Ramadan are against the registration of new voters in the limited registration exercise and are open to going to court to halt the exercise.
Their frustrations retierates the position of the General Secretaries of the National Democratic Congress, the New Patriotic Party and the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) who jointly demanded an emergency IPAC meeting on the impending registration.
The Peoples’ National Convention’s National Youth Organiser Abu Ramadan last month issued a two-week ultimatum to the EC to suspend the exercise or face legal action.
The Danquah Institute is also calling on the Electoral Commission to, as a matter of urgency, suspend its plans of registering new voters during the limited registration exercise the EC plans to embark on between June 20 and June 29, 2014.
“Apart from the limited registration exercise, other matters will definitely come up and as an IPAC meeting…the parties will definitely have divergent views and they will be discussed comprehensively”, EC’s Public Relations Officer, Sylvia Annor, said.
IPAC’s main function is to deliberate, share ideas and proffer advice on electoral matters.
Although the EC is not bound by decisions of the political parties at IPAC meetings, the Commission takes such inputs seriously.
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