Graphic engages political parties in Sunyani tomorrow
The second in the series of the 2016 Graphic town hall meetings will be held in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region tomorrow.
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The town hall meetings, initiated by the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), is to offer political parties the opportunity to interact with the electorate, pledge peace and put their messages across on how prepared they are for the elections.
The meetings are part of efforts by the GCGL to bring the activities of political parties closer to the electorate for the 2016 elections.
Participants
Various political parties, including the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), the People’s National Convention (PNC), the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Convention People’s Party (CPP), will make 15-minute presentations of their readiness for free and fair elections at the Ebusua Hall of the Tyco City Hotel tomorrow.
The theme for the town hall engagements is: “Good governance, key to growth and development in Ghana”.
Political party representatives will also speak on their plans for infrastructure development, job creation to maximise human capital, energy as a catalyst to propel the industrial agenda, education to enhance the national cause to be part of the league of nations and agriculture for food sufficiency and export.
A question-and-answer session will follow the presentation.
From Sunyani, the meeting will move to Koforidua in the Eastern Region and Cape Coast in the Central Region.
Rationale
Explaining the rationale for the meetings, the Director of Newspapers of the GCGL, Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, said the motive was to provide a platform for the political parties to state their preparedness for and commitment to peace, including the use of language.
“Our elders have said if a prophet predicts doom, he is part of the holocaust that might come. We [Graphic] are part of the system and we know that elections are critical periods. Since peace is very critical for the media, we say that we have a responsibility and, therefore, since 2012, we have taken it upon ourselves a certain obligation to visit at least some regions, bring the political parties together and let them tell the public how they are going to commit themselves to maintaining the peace,” he added.
Tracking promises
“All presentations by the political parties from the town hall meetings are to be published, so that the public can monitor and point out some of the issues.
“When people come out openly to make a commitment, there is a willingness to go through that. Public acknowledgement in itself is a commitment to peace,” he said.
The novelty edition of the town hall meetings by the GCGL was held in selected regional capitals, including Tamale in the Northern Region, Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, Takoradi in the Western Region and Ho in the Volta Region in 2012.
