The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia has dismissed some media reports that the Electoral Commission (EC) has directed the party to table its proposed electoral reforms before the Interparty Advisory Committee (IPAC) for dialogue.
Mr Nketia, speaking in an interview on Wednesday, stated that the Commission has received the party’s electoral reforms and it has given the assurance that the proposals would be studied.
He described the EC’s purported directive as surprising. According to him, the media report could only imply that either the media was fabricating its own stories or the EC was feeding the NDC one thing and the media another.
“They (EC) are the first people we sent the reforms to. All the others are copies we are giving to other stakeholders. So, we have given it to EC and they have responded.
I get surprised at times about some responses I am hearing in the media which are different from the response we received from the EC. Either the media is creating responses for the Commission or the Commission is writing to us, saying one thing and granting interviews saying a different thing.”
“They (EC) wrote to us. They acknowledged receipt of our reforms and thanked us and assured us they will be looking at those proposals. Then later we heard the media saying that the EC says NDC should send the reforms to IPAC,” he said.
Mr Nketia added that for him, media outlets running such reports are not fully abreast with happenings at the EC.
This, he explained was because the Commission cannot be differentiated from IPAC.
“If you want to differentiate the Electoral Commission from IPAC, what are you talking about? IPAC is a meeting that is called by Electoral Commission and they set the agenda.
So it is a document that they are in possession of and having read it and determined that it is worthy of some discussion, then they will call a meeting and put it on the agenda.
“So there is no difference between sending proposals to IPAC and sending proposals to Electoral Commission,” Mr Nketia explained.
Although, the NDC had earlier rejected an invitation from the Commission to attend an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting to review the 2020 general election, Mr Asiedu Nketia has stated the EC is mandated by law to consider the party’s proposals.
-Myjoyonline.com
