General News of Monday, 8 August 2016

Source: peacefmonline.com

EC can make mistakes - Mike Oquaye Jnr.

Mike Oquaye Jnr. Mike Oquaye Jnr.

Deputy Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mike Oquaye Jnr. has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to hold an IPAC meeting over its E-transmission of the 2016 Election Results.

He urged the EC to deliberate with the political parties to assess the pros and cons of transmitting the results electronically.

Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Mike Oquaye Jnr. discounted claims that the NPP is always against the EC.

According to him, the EC has been advocating strongly that political parties should be vigilant to enhance their (EC's) work.

“Vigilance does not start on election day. It starts before. So, we’re just checking what the EC is doing to make sure it's doing it right . . . Can’t the EC make a mistake? It's an organization that when they make a mistake, we point it out to them."

Mr. Oquaye Jnr. further noted that unlike the ruling National Democratic Congress that has a track record of physically attacking the EC over electoral issues; "we don’t go and throw stones at vehicles at EC. We take EC to court or we ask EC through a petition or we write a letter. How can that be a problem? Is this not the same EC that gave a wrong notice during local elections when they were told to make 21 days’ notice? Is the EC god? EC is a human institution and [that] we are also making checks and balances, transparency and accountability.”

He therefore believed the issues regarding the electronic transmission exercise should be thrashed out with the various parties in order to reach a consensus.