Former President John Dramani Mahama has said the Electoral Commission(EC) is reluctant in accepting the largest opposition NDC back into the Inter-Party Advisory Committee(IPAC).
The former leader disclosed that several moves undertaken by the Peace Council toward reaching a middle-ground with the EC, and the two leading parties on the NDC’s return to IPAC have proved futile.
“The Peace Council has invited them for the last 8 months. The Electoral Commission can’t find time to sit with the Peace Council and after that have a joint meeting between the two biggest parties so that we can go back to IPAC. They’re not interested,” Mr Mahama told the Voice of America in Washington.
However, the Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Bossman Asare has indicated that the EC is under no compulsion to force all political parties to attend IPAC and other EC-related meetings.
“One thing which must be clear is that parties coming to IPAC, the EC cannot force any political party to come to IPAC,” he told Joy Fm after the NDC withdrew from the IPAC last year.
Meanwhile, the NDC has proposed that the IPAC and its advisory role in the electoral process should be given a legal backing, without encroaching on the constitutional independence of the Electoral Commission.
