NDC should wait for EC's voters register cleanup - Peace Council Chair

Accra, Ghana - Rev. Dr. Ernest Adu Gyamfi, Chairman of the National Peace Council, has advised the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to allow the Electoral Commission (EC) to rectify errors in the voters' register before pushing for a forensic audit.

In an interview on 3FM's Hot Edition, Rev. Dr. Gyamfi emphasized that it's in the NDC's best interest to wait for the EC to correct the register and publish the final version before making demands.

"If errors have been identified, we believe that the best forum is to present those errors, get them corrected and then we can go back to look at what the correction is. Where are we? Have we corrected all the issues and the challenges we have? If it is not? Then we look at the way forward.

“But if we have not done the correction and we are calling for an audit, then I’m wondering what else we may identify because we need to find those errors now, clean-up and we can move forward,” he added.

The EC had rejected the NDC's request for a forensic audit, instead inviting the party for a meeting to address their concerns. However, the NDC declined the invitation.

Rev. Dr. Gyamfi stressed that the NDC should engage the EC directly, rather than publicly airing grievances.

He announced that the Peace Council will convene an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on September 18, bringing together all political parties and the EC.

“I think the most important thing is go the discussion table and put out the issues there, just putting them in the public domain does not solve any problem,” he added.

He continued: “Let them finish the clean-up, if they finish the clean-up and then we realise that there are still errors, I think that everybody in this country will agree with you.”

“We were working towards a possible IPAC meeting today [September 16] so that we they could have resolved all the issues, the NDC thought it will disrupt their plans for their protest. The EC also had challenges because by the L.I that regulates the filing of nominations, they have to vet the presidential candidates between today and tomorrow to determine those who qualify on Wednesday."

“But there’s already a scheduled IPAC meeting on Wednesday and we are hoping that at that meeting, whatever issues there are, we expect that the NDC presents its grievances for it to be looked at,” he stated.

Source: Lead News Online