Crunch IPAC meeting on new voters register underway
The crunch meeting between the Eminent Advisory Council of the Electoral Commission (EC) with the leadership of the commission and the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) over the compilation of a new voter register for this year's general elections is underway in Accra.
The meeting started at 10 am amid heavy security as personnel of the Ghana Police Service had been positioned at vantage points of the Coconut Grove Recency Hotel, the venue of the meeting, to give maximum protection to the participants.
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Before any of the participants were allowed into the meeting room, four well-built police officers armed with a scanning device ensured that there was no foreign material entering the venue.
The scanning process was also to ensure that people who did not belong to political parties or were not invited for the meeting did not have access to the deliberations.
For instance, journalists who had entered the meeting room before the commencement of proceedings were ordered out with a strict warning that the nature of the discussions was not for public consumption.
However, the programme outline seen by Graphic Online before the commencement of the meeting indicated that the deliberation was going to last two hours within which the Chairman of the Eminent Advisory Council of the EC, Mr Justice Emile Short; the Chairperson of the EC, Mrs Jean Mensa; the consultant to the EC on the voters register, Dr Yaw Ofori-Adjei are expected to make distinct presentations on the issue at stake.
The programme outline seen by Graphic Online also showed that the political parties and IPAC would make a presentation between 10:43 am and 12:13 pm.
Meanwhile, a communique is expected to be issued to the media on the proceedings after the close door meeting.
The Graphic Online team at the venue of the meeting observed that some heavyweight political actors in Ghana are attending the meeting.
Notable among them are the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr John Buadu; the party's Communications Director, Mr Yaw Buaben Asamoah and the National Organiser of the party, Mr Sammy Awuku.
The major opposition political party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was represented by its National Chairman, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, the National Secretary, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia; the National Communications Officer, Mr Sammy Gyamfi and other party executives.
Also seen were the Founder and Leader of the All People's Congress (APC), Mr Hassan Ayariga; the Founder of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Mr Kofi Akpaloo and the National Chairman of the People's National Convention, Mr Bernard Mona.
more to follow...