�Dead� Parties Resurrect At IPAC Meetings � Mac Manu

The campaign manager of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Peter Mac Manu, says the effectiveness of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) is being seriously undermined in recent times.

He accused the Electoral Commission (EC) of inviting officials of moribund political parties to IPAC meetings to do nothing but counter arguments advanced by the NPP.

He said even though there was abundant evidence that many political parties had not complied with the legal requirements of the EC itself to qualify to be recognised as such, the EC continued to invite those parties to IPAC meetings.

Mr Manu disclosed this on Joy FM's Super Morning Show while reacting to the 11-day Limited Voter Registration exercise organised by the EC to give an opportunity to persons who have turned 18 years and above to register to join the national electoral roll.

The exercise, which spanned April 28-May 8, has generated a lot of heated debate in the country, especially with the major political parties, the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition NPP being at each other’s throat over issues such as the registration of minors.

There was also the allegation of intentional disenfranchisement of University of Ghana students levelled against the Commission by some political party leaders for siting only one registration centre on the campus.

Touching on the issue, Mr Manu expressed his misgivings about the conduct of the EC as far as the exercise was concerned.

"I was on the Legon campus to observe for myself and a lot of the students, though writing their exams, were in a queue to register," he said, adding that it was unfortunate most of the students did not get the opportunity to register.

The university, he noted, was the only place in this country where people within the age bracket of 18-24 were congregated, and the EC should have had the foresight to plan well for those schools.

Describing the dissatisfaction of the NPP, Mr Manu said: "My party is very much peeved about the way young men and women were not able to register."

He said it was heartbreaking that Ghana did not have a national identification card after the Kufuor-led NPP administration invested so much effort in setting up the National Identification Authority and helping it with logistics.

He explained that seven regions in the country were ready for the card but the NDC had left everything in tatters. The national ID card would have solved the problem of registering voters and eliminated the problem of having the names of minors and foreigners in the register.