<<Print>>

National Chairman of the Convention Peoples Party, Bernard Anbataayela Mornah, is proposing media participation in subsequent Inter Party Advisory Committee meetings to stop those deliberately prosecuting an agenda disrupt to the electoral process.

Bernard Mornah is particularly disappointed in the New Patriotic Party whose leadership, he believes, have embarked on a sustained effort to discredit the Electoral Commission after they lost the 2012 general elections.

The PNC Chairman, who was commenting on what he considers to be another attempt by the NPP Communications Director to incite Ghanaians against the EC, told host of Accra based OKAY FM, Kwame Nkrumah Tikese that he finds it strange for Nana Akomeah who has never attended an IPAC meeting to sit in the comfort of his office to determine how the committee and the EC should operate.

He said, at the last IPAC meeting which included observers from the Canadian and other foreign missions, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), the EC affirmed its position that it is not going to validate the register as demanded by the NPP.

Mr Mornah added that the consensus reached was to allow the EC to carry out the limited registration exercise which starts from April 28 to May 8 after which the provisional register will be exhibited for cleaning.

“In view of this sad development where NPP consistently misrepresents facts to prosecute an agenda to discredit the EC, I will formally request that the media is allowed to participate in IPAC meetings, so that they can report what really happened. If we can allow the Canadians, the French to participate, the media should be allowed” he said.

He lamented, “One group of NPP executives attend IPAC meetings and they allow other people who were not there to speak to the issues. This double tongue must stop. All the position NPP has stated, were thoroughly discussed. At one point the EC wanted IPAC members to define validation and we could not. At one point the EC officials referred to the dictionary for synonyms of validation….We resolved to allow the EC to go ahead”

Mr Mornah explained that countries which strictly adhere to validation, voting is mandatory unlike Ghana where one can register and decline to participate in general elections.

“In 2012 I registered as a voter but I failed to confirm when the exhibition was done. If we go by NPP’s demand, my name would have been deleted because I did not validate, I was out of the country and I would have been disenfranchised”.

“Many people live in the urban areas but register in their villages. Some are outside the country. Within the period of the exhibition if they don’t get clearance, it would mean they are dead. How? We raised all these concerns. And when you condemn those undermining the EC, the NPP group say you are defending the EC. No, we are defending our democracy,” Bernard posited.

He wondered if the posture of Nana Akufo Addo and his supporters are doing so for political convenience or to give the EC a bad name to hang it. “It begs the question whether we are sincere.”

“The limited registration is in a few days’ time. This is the time all political parties must educate the public and not the trivial diabolical issues,” he added.