• He wants the EC to stop double-dealing on the issue of IPAC
• His critique of the EC comes after that of former president John Dramani Mahama
Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the main opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, has slammed the Electoral Commission for directing the party to channel reform proposals to the Inter Party Advisory Committee, IPAC.
According to him, the EC’s posture was amusing because IPAC was the same body that the EC has routinely referred to as toothless and thus, one which cannot dictate to them.
Speaking at a press conference held on August 24 to discuss electoral reforms that the party had arrived at after their review of the 2020 general elections, Asiedu Nketia held that IPAC in its current state was not an avenue that could address their concerns.
“Of all the people who have advised the IPAC route, none of them amuses me than that which was coming from the commission itself.
“Have you noted the number of times the Commission has told political parties that IPAC is toothless, IPAC cannot suggest anything to them, they have absolute independence?” he quizzed.
“So is it the commission that is saying that now let’s go back to that useless body? To discuss what and what will the outcome represent? So electoral commission never ceases to amuse some of us, honestly.
“On one hand, they will say IPAC cannot dictate anything to us. And when we are saying the population that put you there, let is discuss these things and let’s get them implemented, you are still calling that we should go back to IPAC,” he added.
He also accused the EC of abandoning IPAC at a point rather establishing a Committee of Eminent Persons it chose to confer with.
The General Secretary echoes sentiments expressed by the party’s flagbearer in the 2020 elections and former president of the republic, John Dramani Mahama, who described the EC’s advice to go to IPAC with their reforms as absurd.
Speaking in an interview available to GhanaWeb during his ‘Thank You Tour’ in the Upper East Region, John Dramani Mahama described the directive of the EC as "the most absurd request.”
“Where is the inter-party advisory committee, where is their offices, where does it exist?” he added.
“IPAC is an advisory committee to the EC and IPAC is housed by the EC and it’s the EC that calls IPAC meetings. So how can you ask that the letter be given to IPAC? Who is IPAC?” he further explained in an interview with GBC URA Radio in Upper East.
The NDC flagbearer went on to state that the directive of the EC is an indication that the commission is being unreceptive to the party.
“These are some of the absurd things this committee does that make us feel it's hostile to our party, I mean, the right place to send the letter is to the Electoral Commission,” he said.
Johnson Asiedu Nketia is General Secretary of the NDC