President of the National House of Chiefs, Togbe Afede XIV has disclosed that the Jean-Mensa-led Electoral Commission has refused to honour their[House of Chiefs’] invitation for a dialogue on the compilation of the New Voters’ Register.

According to him, the House has sent several calls to the commission since the 5th of February this year but is yet to receive any feedback from the Electoral body.

Addressing Journalists in the Ashanti Region, Togbe Afede stated that the House after receiving a petition from the coalition against the compilation of the New Voters’ Register extended invitations to the EC for updates on its preparedness for the December 7 polls as well as provide the necessary justification for its insistence to compile the new register barely 9 months to the polls.

The EC has, however, according to Togbe Afede, failed to show up for any of the meetings even after a registrar with the Standing Committee of the House was sent to follow up on the requests.

Togbe Afede further noted that the Commission was given an invitation to meet the House of Chiefs again on Friday, March 13 but officials of the commission failed to show up, an action he describes as ‘unfortunate’.

“It is unfortunate that the EC failed to come as we requested. More unfortunate is the fact that in their response to our letter, they claim they had programs for the whole of February and they will be unable to come and sit down with us.

“With the requests, we made to them on the 5th of February, they said they didn’t have any time to meet us so the standing committee requested a registrar to go to them so that they will come early in this month so we can assemble to meet them, as of today, we have not heard from them,” he told a group of Journalists on Friday.

The National House of Chiefs President added that state institutions entrusted to work as independent bodies should not take the citizenry for granted.

Credit: ABCNewsgh.com