https://www.myjoyonline.com/ec-must-respect-political-parties-haruna-iddrisu/-------https://www.myjoyonline.com/ec-must-respect-political-parties-haruna-iddrisu/
Politics

EC must respect political parties – Haruna Iddrisu

Member of Parliament for Tamale South Constitution says the Electoral Commission must respect political parties as institutions they are working with.

He says political parties are a very important part of every democracy, therefore, the EC must admit their importance and work with them for the good of the country.

"You recall that I have publicly stated that Jean Mensa was running the EC as if she was running an NGO [but] there is no EC when there are no viable, efficient and functional political parties," he said at an NDC press brief Thursday.

This comes after various allegations have been leveled against the EC on its failure to heed to requests of political parties in the country other than the ruling New Patriotic Party.

Among such was a request for the EC to hold on with its decision to compile a new voters register for the country.

The EC on the 30th of June began the compilation of a new voters registration exercise.

Though the Commission firmly stated that the exercise was to provide the country with a credible register for a free and fair election, the decision was strongly opposed by the NDC.

After the exercise, however, the Commission disclosed that the new register still contained the names of minors and non-Ghanaians.

Subsequently, there have been reports of missing names and duplicated IDs in the new register when the Commission last Friday began a voters exhibition exercise.

The NDC has further expressed disappointment in the EC for failing to provide the country with a new credible voters' register as it initially stated.

However, the EC’s Director of Electoral Services, Dr Serebour Quaicoe in an interview on Joy FM Tuesday indicated that such problems are known to crop up during every registration exercise.

Nonetheless, Mr Iddrisu also says Political Science teaches that political parties are major stakeholders in every country's democracy, therefore, their concerns must be taken into consideration by the EC.

He believes that such mistakes could have been avoided if the EC had initially listened to concerns raised against the compilation of the new register.

"She must respect the political parties as institutions she is working with," he said.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.