NDC’s boycott of IPAC meeting unjustified – EC

The Electoral Commission (EC) has described as “unjustified” the decision by the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to boycott a recent Interparty Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting to review the 2020 elections.

The party said in a statement it failed to attend the meeting on April 21 because of the “EC’s lack of candour, odious duplicity, and open bias.”

The statement signed by General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia noted that “bias displayed by the Jean Mensah-led Electoral Commission in favour of the New Patriotic Party in the conduct of the 2020 general elections”, informed their decision.

But the Electoral Commission has described the claims as unfounded.

Director of Training at the EC, Michael Boadu, told 3news.com the “EC has no problem with any party.”

“The IPAC invitation was sent to all the parties; if we had deliberately left out the NDC, then there would have been a problem.”

He maintained, “if on the back of the invitation, one party decides not to show up, it does not suggest the EC has a problem with them, maybe they have a problem with us”.

The NDC in that statement on the boycott of IPAC also noted it would review its relationship with the commission following its position that “the current leadership of the EC supervised the manipulation of the 2020 elections”, and cannot lead any discussions on same with the parties.

But Michael Boadu said the appropriate thing for the NDC to do is to approach the commission with their grievances.

“The EC is available. They (NDC) can approach and let us have a conversation. We have no problem at all. We will have these interactions with whoever needs our attention.”

He said the EC operates, “an open-door policy which allows us to listen to all parties and their misgivings on any matter”.

“So we are still available when the NDC approaches. We would listen to them,” he told 3news after a 3-day high-level post-election review workshop organized by CODEO in Ada.