EC boss doesn’t respect me as a person – Odike

Founder and Leader of United Progressive Party, Akwasi Addai ‘Odike’, has accused the Electoral Commission (EC) chairperson, Jean Mensa, of being disrespectful.

The businessman says the EC Chair does not respect him, especially as a person.

“This woman [Electoral Commission Chair] doesn’t respect me as a person. Even when I want to meet her to discuss something, never has this woman allowed me to meet her,” Odike complained on Accra-based Citi FM.

His comment comes after the electoral body served notice to revoke the registration of Odike’s UPP and 16 other political parties over the absence of their offices.

The Commission wants these parties to respond in writing justifying why they should be maintained on the country’s list because they have no national and regional offices as required by the Act governing political parties.

But Odike says he cannot fathom the EC’s directive as all information has already been provided and questioned why they had to make such news public.

“All the information was provided to them, so I don’t understand why she makes a U-turn to throw into the public space that they cannot find our offices.

“Sometimes NDC and NPP fail to submit even their audited reports, and it takes the EC to go after them for many months before they submit it. These are normal things that happen to political parties,” he said.

To him, the Commission should have directly written to the parties in question instead of the public notice, stating “when we write to EC we don’t put it in the public domain, so they must accord us that respect.”