The New Patriotic Party is calling for an immediate suspension of the ongoing voter registration exercise.

The exercise is to afford Ghanaians who turned 18 years after the last registration and those who are above 18 years but could not register, a chance to do so.

However, according to the NPP, the exercise is in breach of the regulations governing electoral processes as the Electoral Commission failed to consult major stakeholders.

Director of Elections of the party Martin Agyei Mensah Korsah said the Constitutional Instrument (CI) 7 regulation 2 (3) mandates the commission to officially inform political parties about the exercise.

This will enable the parties to provide a list of agents who will monitor the process.

The Commission according to him ought to have furnished political parties and stakeholders names of agents who will moderate the registration exercise before it began.

Mr Mensah Korsah questioned why the EC was embarking on a vote transfer at this moment when CI 75 20 (3b) of the constitution only permits that this is done not less than 42 days to an election.

“If you go again to look at the CI 75 20 (3b) you’ll know that transfers must be done not less than 42 days to the election that is right ahead. We just do not know which election is ahead of us, is it the 2016 election or the botched district assembly elections.

“Can we know whether a new date has been set and how we are calculating”, he queried.

He said the nature of the registration exercise required that the EC engaged all stakeholders to discuss the modalities of it for a smooth process, but this has not been done.

Joy News’ Afreh Kwakye Nuamah spoke to executives of the People’s National Congress (PNC), Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) all of whom backed calls for registration exercise to be halted.

The PNC says because the process requires that it schools its agents across the country on what to look out for during the process and because this has not been done, it was inappropriate for it to continue.

Principal Public Relations Officer of the EC Sylvia Annor in a response to the parties’ complaint said they will issue an official statement concerning the matter.

She said the EC is willing to meet all the political parties and asked that the parties write to them outlining their concerns but declined to comment on assertions that the parties have been sidelined.