The Deputy Head of Communications at the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC), Yussuf Ayuba, says there are reasons why letters for the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting arrived late.
According to him, it was because the internal records delayed in dispatching the letters.
The first meeting of the Committee under the new Chair of the EC on Wednesday was boycotted by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), citing they receiving the invitation letter less than 30 minutes to the meeting.
According to NDC’s Director for Elections, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, his party received the invitation letter for the meeting at 12:40pm and the meeting was starting at 1:00pm and both the General Secretary for the party and him had prior engagements.
Commenting on the issue, Mr Ayuba explained that they prepared the letters on Monday and sent them to the internal records.
According to him, they assumed that the internal records will do their jobs by sending the letters to the recipients same day.
“We assumed that because it has gone there…they will dispatch those letters and that is why in the evening, we decided to follow up with a text message informing them that there was an IPAC meeting on Wednesday,” he said on Thursday on 3FM’s Sunrise.
In his view, the wise decision was to send the parties an SMS as he knew some of them may not receive the letters on time.
It was alleged that IPAC is treating the NDC with contempt hence their decision not to be part of the process.
But Mr Ayuba explained that during the meeting the issue was raised and tackled so they will try as much as possible to prevent such situation.
“We acknowledge them and we apologize to them and told them that hence forth we will try as much as possible that such thing won’t happen.”
By Lily Kakra Owusu|3news.com|Ghana