The Member of Parliament (MP) for Effutu, Hon. Alexander Afenyo-Markin believes persons who speak on behalf of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have refused to be factual when addressing issues put on board during panel discussions.

This is because they have been given ‘hymn books’ by their party leaders on how to speak.

“Issues in relation to the EC are now matters you would see members of the NDC mostly speaking on passionately as if they are Public Relations Officers (PRO’s) of the Commission. This is not a good practice for the NDC to adopt, since it would sway the EC not to bring out its best,” he told Lawyer Tweneboah Koduah.

Speaking on UTV’s ‘Adekye Nsroma’ program, Hon Afenyo-Markin urged the EC to have a listening ear for its stakeholders than always trying to do things its own way.

He described recent comments by the Head of Communications for the EC, Mr. Eric Dzakpasu that the electoral body will not extend the date for the re-registration of persons whose names were deleted from the register of voters for using National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards as a ‘sweeping statement’.

The EC further held that the low turnout could not be attributed to the low publicity of the event because there was adequate publicity on the exercise.

Mr. Dzakpasu, at a recent press conference held by the EC, noted that “It has been four years since NHIS card registrants registered and the chances are that a good number of them may no longer have been with us as others may have their own reasons why they would not want to re-register.”

To him, “The message is well disseminated. If people wanted to get re-registered, they could have done so well within the 10 days. There is no evidence that when an extension of the date is granted, the remaining people will come out of their houses or communities to get their names re-registered.”

But the Effutu MP dismissed the EC's assertions saying the ten-day period was too short for the re-registration exercise. He accused the electoral body of acting unilaterally and not serving the interest of the public.

“I say this based on my facts from my constituency that the just ended exercise was not fairly handled there and shouldn’t have also ended in ten days.”