The Head of International Relations Desk of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alex Segbefia, has affirmed that the party will not include the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) in its expedition for electoral reforms.
According to him, IPAC has detracted from using consensus in resolving election-related issues to voting.
“IPAC is supposed to be a consensus-building body and should not open up for political parties to vote. In the past, IPAC will debate on issues until consensus is met but the case is not same now”.
In an interview on Accra-based Joy FM on Monday, Mr. Segbefia opined, IPAC was established so that then NPP will have a nonpartisan platform to lay its reforms. It was authorized to execute policies based on consensus so that the opposition party will not feel bullied, and it generated good results which transformed Ghana’s elections.
“Before the 2020 election, the NDC forwarded reforms to IPAC where it was a consensus body but transformed into a voting organization after inviting political parties to vote. That is the problem with IPAC”, he cited.
The Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), was formed in March 1994 by the EC during NDC tenure to bring together representatives of political parties on monthly basis with members of the Electoral Commission to discuss and build consensus on electoral issues.
It will be recalled that, in March 2020, NDC boycotted IPAC meeting regarding the failure to grant the party’s request for the EC to postpone all future meetings indefinitely due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Mr. Segbefia stressed that the party will not go back to IPAC since it has stopped using the appropriate approach to deal with electoral reforms and thus, the party will use its legal team to deal with the issue.
President Akufo-Addo as part of measures to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic promised to build 88 hospitals last year but broke grounds for the commencement of the project on August 17 at Trede in the Atwima Kwanwoma District of the Ashanti Region.
The government expects the projects to be completed within 18months.
Reacting to this, Alex Segbefia said, the government’s lack of transparency on the sources of funding for the Agenda 111 hospitals project is alarming.
Lamenting that, President Akufo-Addo failed to fulfill his earlier promise of constructing 88 district hospitals due to lack of funds and poor planning, and the same way the president promised those hospitals, is the same way he is also promising these hence it won’t be ‘doable’.
