By Rebecca Ekpe
At a Stock-taking Conference at Peduase, in the Eastern Region as part of preparations for Ghana’s 2024 Elections, convened by the National Peace Council, Chairman of the National Democratic Congress, (NDC), Johnson Asiedu-Nketia announced that the party has decided to return to the Inter-party Advisory Committee of IPAC.
‘’We will return to IPAC, …….and not any other forum. Outstanding issues will have to be resolved, Mr. Nketia said citing lack of consensus building as the reason for the party’s exit from the Inter-party Advisory Committee, IPAC which is a mechanism constituted by Political Parties in Ghana to agree on modalities related to the Electoral processes.
‘’IPAC was put together by the parties with the Electoral Commission, EC, the Referee’’, Mr. Nketia articulates.
Earlier, there were calls from the Peace Council Board Chairman, Rev Dr. Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, the Electoral Commission Chairperson, Jean Mensa and Institute for Democratic Governance Executive Director, Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey for the NDC to return to IPAC to contribute to the democratic values discourse.
Mr. Nketia’s said, ‘’it must not be seen as personal, we are working to ensure that the institutions are not short-changed’’, narrating the contribution of IPAC to Electoral Reforms in Ghana, and the fact that Nigeria has picked lessons from Ghana’s example of IPAC, which ought to be upheld.
‘’We are impressed with the Olive Branch extended to us by the Chairperson of the EC, but we must make sure that the issues are resolved’’, the NDC Chairman noted.
A point of departure between the NDC and the EC is on the use of the Ghana Card as the sole document for capturing voters onto the register and the scrapping of the guarantor system during voter registration.
‘’This use of Ghana Card, has not covered the entire country”, Mr Nketia’s point of view.
Let’s use guarantee system, an option the NDC is championing, in their view, to avoid disenfranchising people.
EC’ position is that the Guarantor system has been abused, allowing minors onto the register.
Experts believe that these and other issues could be ironed out at the IPAC level to facilitate the smooth processes ahead of Ghana’s crucial 2024 General Election.