NDC Walks Out On EC

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) yesterday walked out on the Electoral Commission (EC) during talks over the Representation of the People’s Amendment Act (ROPAA) The party had reiterated that it would not recognize any vote from the Diaspora in the December 2008 presidential elections and that it would accept the results based on only ballots cast in Ghana.

Two other political parties, the People’s National Convention (PNC) and the Egle Party, an arm of the NDC, had also joined the NDC in the boycott of the EC forum.Johnson Asiedu Nketia, NDC General Secretary, explained delegates boycotted discussions to re-state the party’s position that it would not be part of the democratic process, should the EC go ahead to implement the Act. The Act, enacted some months ago amidst protests from sections of the public, is to give voting rights to Ghanaians outside the country.

The NDC’s scribe narrated that political parties had been invited to an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting with an undisclosed agenda, only to be told by the Chairman of the Electoral Commission that the Commission had an obligation to implement ROPAA. The EC, according to the party, was therefore inviting inputs from the political parties on what criteria to use in establishing voting centres to practicalise the Act.

He contended the EC proposed to set up registration centres to foreign nations that has no less than 500 Ghanaian residents, while the highest ranking government official in Ghana’s missions would be mandated to head the supervision of the exercise and the conduct of the ballots. “And then they are also thinking of limiting the Diaspora votes to the presidential elections. We expressed our concerns and indicated our initial position; that there are no good ways of implementing a bad law. So we think that the law is a non-starter, it cannot be implemented.

Mr. Asiedu-Nketia noted the party walked out because it felt no need to stay on to discuss a law it had objected to. “We have stated that we would have nothing to do with its implementation. It could be implemented but we are going to declare our results based upon the voting in Ghana and that is it, if our president is the winner, he is the winner!”. It would be recalled that the NDC staged several walkouts in Parliament and protests on streets ahead of the passing of the law last year.