Amadu Sulley, a deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), has declared that the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) has no legal backing. He said the IPAC’s main function is to deliberate, share ideas and proffer advice on electoral matters. According to him, the EC is not bound by the IPAC’s decisions but takes its input seriously since the two committees share the goal of creating a transparent electoral system. Mr Sulley said this during a four-day meeting between Ugandan political parties with members in parliament and their Ghanaian counterparts in Accra. The programme, whose theme was "The role of Ghanaian Political Parties in Shaping and Influencing the National Agenda - Lessons from Ghana," was sponsored by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the Netherlands Institute of Multi-Party Democracy (NIMD). Mr Sulley said that whenever an issue arose and the IPAC reached a reasonable, practicable and lawful consensus on the way forward, the EC gives its suggestion the serious consideration it deserves. He said the IPAC is made up of representatives of all registered political parties and the EC and that it is structured in such a way that it subsumes Regional Inter-Party Advisory Committees and District Inter-Party Advisory Committees. Mr Sulley explained that the regional and district committees consist of members of the political parties registered in the regions and districts and that EC officers chair all their meetings. During an election year, he said, IPAC’s meetings are normally held monthly at the offices of the EC and attended by representatives of all registered political parties. The Chairman of the EC chairs these meetings, he reported, and in his absence one of his two deputies take his place. Brigadier General Francis A. Agyemfra (Retd), a visiting Senior Fellow of the IEA, said the Institute has contributed great qualitative improvements to Ghana's democracy and that its efforts have led to increased stability. He explained that this stability stems in part from the healthy inter-party relations developed through the IPAC, the IEA, the NIMD, and the Ghana Political Parties Programme. These institutions, he said, have enhanced the peaceful coexistence among peoples of diverse ethnic and religious beliefs and backgrounds. He also said that Ghana has now found a vehicle for building the necessary institutional capacity, inter-party engagement and personal network that will enable her to consign past rancour, bitterness, divisiveness, suspicion, hatred and acrimony, as well as extreme partisanship, to the dustbin of history. Brigadier General Agyemfra reported that political parties are increasingly realizing that neither a single party nor a single government can run the country alone. "Therefore, whatever their party affiliation, whatever the colour of their party symbol and whatever their ideology, they have a collective responsibility to work together in the national interest in raising the standard of living and quality of life of all Ghanaians. "When Ghana prospers, we all prosper," he said.