Electorate asked to participate in electoral process
A senior research fellow at the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr Kwesi Jonah has urged the electorate to fully participate in every aspect of the country’s electoral process.
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According to him, one aspect of the country’s electoral process that many electorate usually failed to fully participate in is the exhibition of the voters register.
“Many people fail to go and check if their details in the register are actually correct. It is very important that we do that to prevent any problem on the voting day,’’ he said.
Event
Dr Jonah, who was speaking at the monthly “Y Dialogues” programme in Accra last Friday, said active participation from the electorate could go a long way to promote the country’s electoral process.
The event, organised by Y FM in collaboration with STAR-Ghana, aimed at educating the youth on the various aspects of the country’s electoral process and also to encourage them to vote on issues and not personalities or any form of inducement.
It was attended by more than 200 students from various senior high and tertiary institutions in the country.
The participants were taken through various aspects of the CI 91, the law governing the 2016 electoral process.
Participants at the dialogue
Topics under the law that were discussed included the requirements for registration, offences and punishment under the law and the roles of the various stakeholders involved in elections.
Monitisation
Explaining more about the country’s electoral system, Dr Jonah, who is also a Senior Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon (UG), stated that some politicians used money to buy votes of some electorate because majority of the country’s voting population were not wage earners.
“Monitisation in the country’s politics is a very big problem which must be curtailed. The phenomenon is, however, difficult to tackle because majority of the voters are either low income earners or do not earn any income at all,’’ he added.
Advice
The Head of Gender and Disability at the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Abigail Amponsah Lutukor, advised the youth to adhere to peace and not to allow any politician to manipulate them.
“No political ambitions are worth sacrificing your life for. Make peace your hallmark during this upcoming election,” she said.