The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Asiedu Nketia, has intimated that the party did not submit its proposals for electoral reforms to the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) because the Committee is problematic.
He said the party outlined 34 electoral reforms after it boycotted the Electoral Commission’s (EC) efforts towards reforms which included the appointment of Chairpersons of EC to have prior approval of Parliament.
Mr Nketia noted that the voting period of 7am to 5pm on Election Day must be maintained because the political parties had been discussing the proposals at IPAC, but now one of the problems and challenges was IPAC.
“The IPAC itself needs to be fixed and you do not go discussing problems in a problematic and challenging forum and that is why we have to reach out to other stakeholders which is necessary because the Electoral Commission, apart from touting its independence has demonstrated that it needs input from outside stakeholders before it will be able to conduct its mandate,” he intimated.
According to him, the party commenced consultations with various stakeholders on its proposals for electoral reforms and explained that the proposals for electoral reforms and the resultant consultations were borne out of the “serious flaws and failings” the NDC observed during a comprehensive review and audit of the 2020 elections that “affected the fairness, free credibility, transparency and accountability of the elections”.
Mr Nketia stated that after broad consultations, the party came up with 34 recommendations for consideration by both the government and the EC and when the recommendations are implemented, it would help restore the credibility of country’s elections.
