This was disclosed by the Director of Electoral Services, Dr Serebour Quaicoe after an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Wednesday, March 25, 2020, reports Graphic Online's Kweku Zurek from the EC headquarters in Accra.

Mr Quaicoe told journalists that the suspension will be reviewed late April or early May in consultation with health experts.

"We told them(the political parties) that we had planned to do the registration on the 18th but because of the pandemic, we can't do it on the 18th," Dr Quaicoe said.

"So, we are observing what is happening around Ghana and the global issues. We are with the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service and other experts, so they are also monitoring the situation and advising us, so when it gets to a time that they think the situation is fertile, they will tell us... It has been suspended, it cant be 18th (April).

Dr Serebour, however, maintained that the EC made it clear at IPAC that there was no possibility that the existing register would be used for the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.

"From all the discussions that we have had, we are saying that there is no way that we can use the existing register".

He said all the registration supervisors and key trainers had already been recruited and Procurement contract letters have been issued to selected vendors to supply items to build new election management system for the new voter registration exercise.

IPAC Meeting

Fifteen political parties were officially invited by the EC to attend the IPAC meeting which had the compilation of the new electoral register at the top of the agenda.

As part of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, the parties were divided into two groups for the meeting.

The first group consisted of a representative each from the New Patriotic Party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), the Progressive People's Party (PPP), People's National Convention, Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Ghana Consolidated People's Party (GCPP), and Ghana Union Movement (GUM).

The second session included a representative each from the EGLE Party, United Front Party (UFP), Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), National Democratic Party (NDP), All People's Congress (APC), United Progressive Party (UPP) and PUP.