EC must blacklist NDC from IPAC meetings - John Boadu fumes

General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, has suggested to the Electoral Commission (EC) to blacklist the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) from its IPAC meetings.

According to him, the opposition National Democratic Congress at every turn of event finds fault with the Electoral Commission, making him wonder what the NDC wants from the Electoral Commission.

“I don’t know what the NDC wants from the Electoral Commission. If you look at the way Asiedu Nketia is talking, if I were the Electoral Commission, I would not call the NDC for any meeting, because with every turn of event, the NDC will find fault with the Commission,” he said.

He pontificated on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show that the same NDC kicked against the idea of the Electoral Commission compiling a new voters' register as they threatened to do everything possible to stop the registration exercise.

“When we were about to do the new register, the NDC said that the registration is not possible . . . that we should not do it because of the coronavirus, but when the registration started, they were the first to be registered,” he pointed.

He stressed that the NDC is persistent with the desire to discredit the voter registration exercise which their leader former President John Mahama after registering described the exercise as largely successful.

He, however, told the leading members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) especially the General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia to stop crying over spilt milk as nothing can be done against the voter registration.

“Former President Mahama who is leading the NDC said that the exercise was largely successful . . . I believe that nothing can be done about spilt milk; no matter what you said we are done with the registration,” he said.

Reacting to the complain about the voter exhibition exercise, John Boadu said the reason for the exhibition after the compilation of the new register is to afford the political parties and voters the opportunity to check if their information in the register is accurate.

He reiterated that the political parties are given soft copy of the draft voter register so that they can print copies of the voter register for their agents at the exhibition centres in order to check the information in the register.

“What Asiedu Nketia is saying, it is as if he is joking to the point where if someone does not find his name in the register, they will just add his name to it. It is not true; The EC in addition to the computer the officials are working with have something called poll book where all registrants are recorded,” he said.

“That book is at the polling station and so if the computer does not work, hard record of your name is there. There is no way EC will go to any polling centres and add names of people to the register when they have not taken part in the registration exercise. The poll book is such that there is no way someone can be added to it; it is manual record in chains and so there is no way you can add someone to the poll book,” he stressed.

He mentioned that the exhibition exercise will make it possible for the political parties to address discrepancies in the voters’ register and be captured in the inclusion list if peoples’ names are not found in the register.