The Electoral Commission (EC) has served notice the 18-member Steering Committee it constituted, amidst controversy, is here to stay despite vehement protests from political parties.

More than a month after the committee was inaugurated the Committee; it is yet to provide the terms of reference of the committee to stakeholders, especially the political parties.

The announcement of the committee was as controversial as the members who constituted the Committee.

Some of the members of the Steering Committee were alleged to be members of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, a situation which angered other contesting parties.

They wondered why the EC will constitute a steering committee, whose membership is suspect, to run elections when there are existing structures that run elections in Ghana.

At an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting held last month representatives of political parties were not only a shocked about the constitution of the Committee but demanded that the Committee be disbanded.

Even though members of the IPAC who attended the meeting came to announce the dissolution of the Committee, the EC issued a statement denying that the committee had been disbanded.

The issue of the mysterious Committee was subject matter Friday, March 18, 2016, when the IPAC converged for yet another meeting.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP)'s John Boadu, NDC's Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the Progressive People's Party (PPP)'s Murtala Mohammed and the People's National Convention (PNC)'s Atiq Mohammed were present for the meeting Joy News' Joseph Opoku Gakpo said.

The political parties demanded the terms of reference and name change for the 18-member committee, which they describe as mysterious.

Gakpo reported that the political reps at the IPAC meeting had issues with the name given to the committee.

To refer to a committee as a steering committee, suggested that members of the committee were coming to run the 2016 elections, Murtala Mohammed told Gakpo in an interview.

He said the membership of committee was not only suspicious but he was even more disappointed that the EC could not clearly define the exact role to be played by the committee.

"The EC is mandated to run elections; if they can't they should resign; we pay them as professionals to run elections," he said.

Atiq Mohammed on his part said the idea of the Steering Committee was an abdication of the responsibility by the EC.

He said there is still no clarity about the objective of the committee.

The New Patriotic Party's John Boadu said, except officials of EC, the announcement of the committee came as surprise to all the political party reps.

He faulted the EC for not doing thorough engagement with the political parties before announcing the committee.

He feared there might be duplication of responsibility if the role of 18-member committee is not clearly defined.

"It is a question of clarity and openness and the ability of the EC to carry everybody along," he stated.

The political party reps reported the EC Chair, Charlotte Osei as saying she would formally write to each of the political parties to inform them about the terms of reference and objectives for constituting the committee.