By Rejoice Hoeyameh.
General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, says the party is not seeking to change the functions of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), into a statutory body.
Rather, the NDC wants the rules of engagement between IPAC and the Electoral Commission (EC), to be more structured.
He explained that the NDC’s proposed legislation seeks to guide the formulation of IPAC and determine who attends its meetings and how inputs made at such meetings would be adopted as the final consensus of the committee to make it more effective.
Mr. Nketiah was speaking in Accra on some aspects of a statement issued by the former Chairman of the EC, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, who disagreed with a proposal by the NDC to make the IPAC a Statutory Body with its functions backed by law. However, Mr. Nketiah downplayed fears that the proposed legislation will intrude on the independence of the EC or make the decisions of the committee binding on the EC.
He said when the EC established the IPAC, it did so to tap into the input of external stakeholders to make its work more effective and acceptable in the eyes of the public.
Mr. Nketiah explained that the NDC is proposing the new legislation because it believes the composition and operations of the IPAC must be guided by the framework in which all stakeholders would operate.
