NDC Kicks Against Election In November

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has taken an entrenched stance against the conduct of the 2024 General elections in November as proposed by the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana.

In a press statement, the General Secretary of the NDC, Fiifi Fiavi Kwetey said it will not support that quest.

“The National Democratic Congress states without equivocation that the Electoral Commission’s quest to hold the general elections in November 2024 will not be supported by the NDC.”

Political parties and civil society organizations were informed about the EC’s intention to conduct the general elections in November instead of the usual December during an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on January 29.

Throwing more light on the reaction of the stakeholders to the news in an interview monitored by opemsuo.com, the Deputy Chairman of the Commission in charge of Corporate Services, Dr. Bossman Asare said all nine parties present supported the idea of having it in November 2028.

Meanwhile, he said, five of them bought the idea of commencing the review this year if the Commission could race against time to have it done.

“Five of them supported that if the EC can go ahead and meet the calendar of Parliament, then we should be able to start it in 2024. All the CSOs also agreed on that.”

He indicated that the remaining four parties raised concern over the election calendar and the feasibility of the review but Mr Kwetey in his statement on January 30 discredited reports that the majority of the parties agreed to the November 2024 proposal.

“Whereas there was a clear consensus on 2028 as the year of effectiveness, it is untrue that the majority of political parties at IPAC agreed to the November 2024 date. It is therefore strange but not unexpected that Dr Bossman will mislead the general public that, almost about 60% of political parties supported the proposal for elections to be held in November 2024 at the IPAC meeting held on Monday, January 29, 2024.”

Concerns about Calendar
In his interview, Mr Bossman emphasized that the EC’s assessment of the calendar has guaranteed the feasibility of the review.

“The calendar will be made available to the parties hopefully by next week…we have assessed it, analysed it and we are sure will be able to do it if we agree that we want to have the election in a day in November.”

The Commission plans on laying the proposal before Parliament when it reconvenes next month.

Reason for Changes
Explaining the motivation behind the proposal, he said it is meant to overcome challenges they face when there is a run-off.

“The Commission looked at several factors in 2020, especially with COVID. It wasn’t a good year to do that so since last year we have been working on it. We had been looking at our equipment, personnel and several factors so we concluded that 2024 was a good time to initiate it and perhaps implement for us to begin in 2024, take our general elections in a day in November so that we have enough time in case there is a runoff. It will also impact positively on the transition when a new government is {taking over].”

“If there is a run-off, you have to 21 days to do it and you have to deploy materials from Accra, print ballot papers, it takes a while to print ballot papers, about 17 million voters,” he said on Eyewitness News monitored by opemsuo.com.

“In the past, the commission did it but went through a lot of challenges to meet the deadline. If it’s possible additional days can created so that if there is a run-off, we can take advantage of that to do a more quality job for this country.”