A member of the communication team of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dela Coffie, has questioned the neutrality of the Catholic Bishops Conference on their call on the Electoral Commission (EC) to include electronic verification in the biometric registration process ahead of the 2012 general elections. Dela Coffie could not fathom why all the arguments raised by the Catholic Bishops Conference on the need for verification correlates with that of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), who are insisting on verification as a panacea for a credible elections. He stated that the Catholic Bishops motive for wading into the sensitive electronic verification process is hypocritical. The Catholic Bishops Conference, in a communiqué issued at the end of their Annual Plenary Assembly held in Takoradi, called on the EC and the government to ensure the procurement of all the equipment necessary to authenticate the identity of voters in next year’s elections. The communiqué said post-election peace has to be engineered throughout the run-up to the 2012 elections, hence the need for verification to expunge any doubts after the elections. But the EC says the inclusion of a verification system in the biometric registration process will cost the country an extra $20 million, insisting that verification is not a "magic potion" for credible elections in 2012. However, speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Monday, Dela Coffie alleged that the Catholic Bishops Conference led by the Archbishop of Accra, Most Rev. Gabriel Charles Palmer Buckle, in 2008 negotiated with President Mills - then candidate Mills - to accept defeat to favour Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who in fact had lost the elections. “Some of these people should not be taken serious. I will give you one example. The same Catholic Bishops Conference led by Palmer Buckle, at the time in 2008 when Nana Akufo-Addo was refusing to accept defeat; he was trying to talk to Prof Mills and NDC people to accept defeat so that we can go into unity government” he opined. When challenged by Ekosii Sen host Nana Bobie Ansah on whether he had any prove, he said “I am saying this on authority. If he denies [it] I will bring evidence”. Suggesting that the Catholic Bishops Conference is an appendage of the NPP, he asked “are they (Catholic Bishops Conference) [the] NPP represented in a different umbrella of Christian organization?." Dela Coffie observed that the action of the Bishops has put unnecessary pressure on the EC, which could be inimical to the country’s peace ahead of 2012. “It is one thing respecting our men of God but it is another thing telling them that they should be consistent. Telling them to be consistent is not disrespect,” he added.