Accra, Sept. 14, GNA – The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has cautioned political parties to be careful not to usurp the principles and work of the Electoral Commission (EC) through hijacking the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC).

The NDC however, expressed concern on the seemingly use of strong- armed tactics by the EC in decision-making during IPAC meetings and emphasised the need for the EC to recognise political parties’ contribution without which IPAC would not have been instituted.

Alhaji Huudu Yahaya, Vice Chairman of NDC made the observation in a document on activities of IPAC made available to Ghana News Agency in Accra on Wednesday citing the manner in which the EC managed concerns during Election 2008 to emphasis the ‘strong-armed tactics’.

He criticised the EC for poorly managing the alleged bloated voters register complaint lodged by the party during 2008 Election “in the view of the NDC it was not satisfactorily handled by the EC”.

On IPAC, Alhaji Yahaya, also a Former NDC General Secretary flawed the EC for drastic reduction in the number of IPAC meetings in recent times as compared to the periods between 1993 and 2000 as well as the agenda for IPAC not being well set and the meeting sometimes lacked the seriousness it deserved.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) on the other hand complained of lack of adequate time to deliberate on issues pertaining to IPAC, according to Nana Ohene Ntow, Former General Secretary of the party.

He pointed out that an hour deliberations at IPAC were woefully inadequate in view of the seriousness of some of the issues.

“We believe that some of the major issues discussed should go beyond the regular period of about one to four hours and even comprise weekends in order to deliberate in a relaxed atmosphere when there are serious issues to be discussed.”

Nana Ntow urged the EC to find a way of extending the time to create a better working relationship between the political parties and EC.

Propounding the Convention Peoples Party’s (CPP) position, Mr Ivor Greenstreet, General Secretary expressed worry at the irregular meetings of IPAC.

“It looked like people were no longer interested in the concerns about the IPAC as a forum for regular consultation”.

Mr Greenstreet said there were instances when the opposition parties at a time threatened through press conferences that the EC was deliberately not convening IPAC meetings for the parties to discuss topical issues.

The CPP complained about instances where major issues had not been addressed satisfactorily.

On the current electoral challenges, the NPP noted that the emerging violence during elections would increase if the EC continued to accept polling station results that were vandalised and party agents who were either beaten or sacked.

According to Nana Ntow, the EC should find ways of rejecting such election results.

He decried the attitude of the police in the recent bye elections held at Akwatia and Atiwa where the police were accused of non-performance.

The Former NPP General Secretary argued that issues of voter identification could pose a grave danger in future election despite an improvement in the system and called for biometric registration to eliminate impersonation in the electoral process.

The NDC identified management of electoral complaints and implementation of recommendations from IPAC as well as violence that occurred at polling stations and how it could be curtailed if not eliminated.

According to the CPP, “With dwindling resources, IPAC has a challenge of the State trying to take control of our electoral budget and whatever goes on during the registration exercise and elections.”

Other political parties cited in the document emphasised the need for IPAC to gain strength to put the EC on its toes and called for the legislation of IPAC.

Some participants argued that this could serve as a platform for questioning the EC on some of its decisions to create some balance and good working relationship.

A proposal was made by some participants for the formation of an IPAC without the EC to create cordiality among the political parties and send positive signals to the grassroots.

The political parties recommended that the EC must organise frequent IPAC meetings to erase suspicion and speculation; open in its deliberations with political parties

Other recommendations include: an extension of IPAC meetings in order to tackle serious issues effectively, EC to adopt a win-win attitude in terms of decision-making in order not to take away its neutrality, social meetings and recreation to create cordiality among IPAC members and holding IPAC meetings at political party offices on rotational basis.

On the unequal and imbalanced participation of political parties at IPAC, it was recommended that names of political party representatives be sent in advance to avoid overcrowding and confusion.

It was suggested that the media should be educated on the good intentions of IPAC instead of dwelling on negative reportage when there was an issue.

The political parties in spite of the challenges identified that IPAC had helped in building trust and confidence in the electoral process, which had translated into free, fair and transparent elections to the acceptability of virtually all stakeholders.

They therefore called on all stakeholders to play their respective roles effectively and efficiently according to laid down rules and regulations since elections was a collective responsibility.