Emergency IPAC meeting ends, NDC dissatisfied

The emergency meeting called by the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) on Thursday, September 24 with political parties at the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) level has ended.

However, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) representative, Osei Kwame Griffiths, said their concerns were not addressed.

“I think it was a meeting that was called perhaps after we had raised certain issues within the public domain that even prior to some of the things that are happening, IPAC was not briefed,” he told journalists including TV3’s Godfred Tanam.

“So, they quickly had to put this together but it still did not answer the very common-sensical questions that we had. So, in my view, the meeting could have achieved much more had they been more receptive to some of the questions that we raised.”

The meeting had been called after the NDC complained of numerous anomalies that have characterised the newly compiled voter register.

The leading opposition party was particularly worried that the numerous names missing are those of their supporters.

But the New Patriotic Party (NPP) expressed satisfaction with the assurance given by the EC that the anomalies will be corrected.

“That is the reason why we have the exhibition of the provisional register to correct any anomalies that might have erupted during the generation of the data,” said the party’s Campaign Manager, Peter Mac Manu, who represented the NPP at the meeting.

Mr Griffiths was, however, irked that the NPP has been reduced to the EC’s praise singers.

“Have you see anything leading to the 2020 elections? The NPP has not criticized anything the EC has done.

“In fact, personal identification numbers, very basic in database management systems, the field that take personal identification numbers should never allow a duplicate. In this case, there are duplicates.”

On his part, a two-time presidential candidate, Jacob Osei Yeboah, said the EC has given all the assurance that the anomalies will be corrected.

“The major concern at this point in time are those whose names have been interchanged. Some were complaining that photos of others have been given to them which under normal circumstances should not happen except there is some corruption of the software.

“But the EC has actually given us the assurance that everything is going to work.”