A Deputy Minister of Information, Pius Enam Hadzide, has advised members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to conduct themselves properly at meetings of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) to avoid any confrontations.

His advice was on the back of an ugly altercation between the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC), Jean Mensa, and the General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, last Thursday, during an IPAC meeting.

The EC boss had alleged Mr. Nketia was laughing while she was answering a question posed to her, an act she deemed disruptive and called him to order. That did not go down well with Mr. Nketia, who flared up.

The NDC cried foul that Mrs Mensa had disrespected their General Secretary in that encounter, but the deputy minister disagreed with that narrative, arguing Mr. Nketia should not have conducted himself the way he did.

According to Mr. Hadzide, the NDC General Secretary is a veteran in politics and should have better known how to carry himself during the meeting. He stressed that respect is key in all meetings.

“He [Asiedu Nketiah] has been in politics for far (sic) more longer so he cannot be corrected even when he is wrong? We need to be respectful even at meetings,” he advised.

Mr. Hadzide said Jean Mensa acted the way every individual would have acted in the same situation, emphasizing that her actions did not in any way exhibit arrogance.

“I will find it offensive if we sit at a meeting and I am not saying anything funny and you are laughing. I will find it offensive and I will point it out to you. It does not exhibit arrogance,” he noted.

Meanwhile, a Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana has warned that if the seeming friction between the NDC and the EC is not checked, it will deteriorate.