Recommendations may strengthen democracy - EU Observer Mission hopes
The Head of the European Union Observation Mission (EU OM) in Ghana’s 2016 Elections, Mr Tamas Meszeric, has expressed the hope that the mission’s recommendations will strengthen the country’s democracy and make future elections fair and transparent to all parties.
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During a presentation at the Centre for European Studies at the University of Ghana, Mr Meszeric said the mission’s recommendations should not be misconstrued as interference in the political processes of Ghana, since it “only means well for the future of Ghana’s democracy.”
He,however, said it was up to the judgement of Ghanaians to weigh the pros and cons of the mission’s recommendations after months of observation in the country before, during and after the just ended 2016 general polls.
According to Mr Meszeric, though the team accepted that the December 2016 election was peaceful, transparent and fair by all standards, the team still believed some few lingering challenges needed to be addressed.
Key recommendations
Major among the recommendations by the EU OM is the need for Ghana to deal with the open partiality of the state-owned broadcaster, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, to government during elections.
The abuse of incumbency is also a major threat to fair play during elections which needs to be dealt with now, the EU OM has observed.
The controversial exorbitant filling fees for aspiring candidates in last year’s election, the team has proposed, needs to be addressed seriously.
The team further recommended that members of the Electoral Commission be selected by Parliament and their term of tenure spelt out clearly, and that the Electoral Commissioned adopt ways to become more transparent to all stakeholders and Ghanaians in general.
Best practices
The Chairman for the occasion, Professor Atsu Ayee, in his address said the EU Observer Mission had in the past made several recommendations which had received little attention by stakeholders.
He hoped that the recommendations by the EU team would be implemented by stakeholders.
He added that it was prudent for Ghana to accept and adopt best democratic practices and recommendations to deepen public and political party confidence in future elections.
He suggested that implementing such positive recommendations would help curb the lack of confidence and the suspicions that always characterised general elections and encourage a much better electoral processes in the future.
