Parties must be ethical in political campaigns — Dr Vladmir Antwi-Danso
A senior Research Fellow at the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD), Dr Vladmir Antwi-Danso, has asked the various political parties vying for this year’s election to be ethical in their campaigns.
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“The nature of campaigns, ethical or unethical, on the part of parties, candidates or their supporters, has a direct impact on the integrity of the electoral process,” he said.
He said an unethical campaign, behaviour or statement that artificially affected the outcome of the election, would just not allow for a free, fair and credible election but would also poison the governance system.
Dr Antwi-Danso was speaking at a lecture organised by the Webster University on the topic “Ethical Political Campaign” in Accra last week.
Artificial electoral outcomes
He said “when unethical campaigns lead to artificial political outcomes, it leads to a corruption of the governance system which tends to undermine the entire national set-up and also creates other conditions that fester indiscipline, violence and other negative situations in the country”.
According to Dr Antwi-Danso, even though research has shown that politicians who undertake negative campaigns appeal to the masses most, the end result is always a departure from the will of the people.
The strength of democracy, he said, depended on the transmission of the right messages that would aid voters to make the right choice.
He, however, said it was regrettable that politics in the country had become like a war and that had engendered a lot of scheming aimed at outdoing political opponents.
Election not war
He added that even in wars, there were rules of engagement that governed the conduct of parties in combat and expressed sadness that election campaigns in Ghana seemed not to observe the rules of engagement, which should not be the case.
“Campaigns are supposed to provide voters with the needed information on how to make the right choices. It should give the opportunity to each party to get their message out to the voters without interference and without having to resort to intimidation, violence or smear tactics,” he stressed.
He said for voters to make the right and informed choices, they needed clear and accurate information on the candidates, their platforms and their messages.
He stated that the electorate needed to be able to make a decision on who to vote for within a secure environment that is free from fear or intimidation.
Electoral integrity
“Integrity suffers when voters are unable to make a choice because they have either been coerced, bribed, lied to or misinformed,” he said.
Ethical campaign, he said, ought to follow laid down procedures as provided for by the electoral system and that research had shown that “the public get angry at dishonest campaign, inconsistency and the use of money to influence electoral outcomes.”
He described the kind of politics being practised in the country as “hyper-politics” that emphasised “the end justifies the means” and that was not helping the country’s democracy.
