IMANI Ghana blames EC for uncertainties in electoral processs’
The Founder and President of IMANI Ghana, Mr Franklin Cudjoe, has blamed the current disagreements and uncertainties in the electoral process on the failure of the Electoral Commission (EC) to remain neutral and fair to all parties.
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"The EC has become more of an interested party in the December 7 polls and actually wishes to be on the ballot paper. The current situation where we have parties using legal means to get onto the ballot could have been prevented if the EC had used effective dialogue with the political parties and transparent processes," he observed.
Mr Cudjoe was speaking at a workshop organised by IMANI, in collaboration with the Goree Institute, a regional civil society organisation (CSO), in Accra yesterday.
The workshop was meant to share experiences on how to effectively engage the EC and other actors in the electoral process in order to ensure peaceful elections.
The workshop drew experts and participants from African countries such as Togo, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea Bissau, as well as personnel from the security agencies and CSOs in the country.
Dialogue
Mr Cudjoe urged the EC to share information through political dialogue with stakeholders to address the challenges that were likely to mar the conduct of the elections.
In that regard, he observed that it was important for the Communications Department of the EC to play its role well through constant engagement with the political parties on all processes of the elections.
"A concensus-building approach is key and so all CSOs and concerned institutions ought to collaborate to bring sanity to the process to avoid possible violence," he added.
He further called on members of the public to speak out on the ills of the electoral system, saying that democratic governance could only be deepened if citizens got involved in the way they were governed.
While lauding the EC for organising six successful elections, the Executive Director of the Goree Institute, Mr Doudou Dia, urged the electoral body to open up and be fair to all political parties in the interest of peace.
He observed that poor management of electoral disagreements had the potential to plunge the country into violence and insecurity.
He stated that the media had a key role to play to promote peaceful elections, for which reason he urged journalists to give equal access on media platforms to all the political parties.
"Unfair access to the media and favouritism by media practitioners can lead to agitation by aggrieved parties. This is not healthy for the democratic process," he said.
Police assurance
The Director of Operations at the Ghana Police Service, Chief Superintendent of the Police, Dr Benjamin Agordzor, warned that the police would not entertain the busing of people by politicians to polling centres on election day.
He said previous experience showed that such activities had the potential to trigger violence.
He added that the Police Service had advanced strategies to deploy its officers to EC outfits, polling centres and vantage points across the country to guarantee the safety of voters and maintain peace.