Late IPAC Invite: We’re sorry – EC

The Electoral Commission has apologised to political parties which are part of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) for inviting them late to the very first meeting since new Chair Jean Mensa took office.

Although some of the political parties showed up despite the late invitation, the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) boycotted the meeting.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss plans for the organisation of a limited voter registration exercise ahead of a referendum for the creation of new regions later this year.

Speaking to Class News, Head of Communications at the EC, Eric Kofi Dzapkasu conceded that the EC erred and apologised on behalf of the commission.

He said: “We conceded that the notice given to the political parties was of a short time, we had very short duration. In fact, we had to convey this meeting and send the invite out Monday evening. We could not hand them over directly to them, and, so, we had to use the mail, the SMS and WhatsApp to alert them that we were having an emergency IPAC meeting.

“Unfortunately, they are used to the game, most of them [political parties] reported and we had a successful meeting. It was rather unfortunate that NDC wasn’t represented. Knowing the stature of the party, it took some bit of shine out of the deliberations. We have conceded that we could have done better; moving forward we will do it better.

“We wish they had come to register their concerns as all the other parties did, they all said they didn’t have adequate time to prepare, we explained and apologised and we wished they had come.”

Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com