<<Print>>The Electoral Commission has begun a sensitization campaign to correct negative public perception and suspicion about its work.
Ashanti Regional Director, Paul Boateng, blames such misconception lack of understanding of the commission’s mandate by some members of the public. He wants the media to assist the EC to erase such misconception through accurate and fair reportage ahead of the up-coming local government election as well as national polls in 2016.
“Media organizations and journalists can meet this expectations only when they consciously work to minimize these weaknesses; cover-ups, blowing matters out of proportions. Quality news report is the more important during election activities because of the tendency to accept media reports as a defacto-reality on which thinking and decisions are based. For this reasons, objectivity, accuracy, fairness and clarity must be the guiding tool guiding all journalists covering all political activities”, Mr.Boateng appealed.
He was speaking at a workshop for over 60 journalists in Kumasi. The programme was a collaborative initiative by the US Embassy, Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) and Ghana Journalists Association.
The Commission, as part of the educative –drive to win public trust, has been meeting with identifiable groups to share information on its mandate.
Similar meetings have already been held with farmer- based groups, queen-mothers, dressmakers, transport organizations and religious groups.
In response to a question on why the mistrust and suspicion from the general public, Mr. Boateng said,
“As for the suspicion, I cannot say why are they suspecting because they don’t understand why that should be the case. We may be doing the right thing all right to safe the situation but the people because of perception and this thing[mistrust], we have to clear ourselves and I think that will put those suspicions and mistrust to rest”.
Meanwhile, an Associate Professor at the Haverford University in the US, Professor Susannah Wing, says election security will be key for Ghana in 2016.
“It’s a danger and, particularly, when you have a very challenging environment, when people are on edge. Things can turn violent quickly and I think it’s in everybody’s interest if elections are run in a secure fashion”, she emphasized.
Professor Wing warns Ghana could be heading for danger, if politicians continue to fund or own media houses which are skewed towards their ideologies.
“If you have a media outlet that is not well funded and that is clearly one of the major problems here; who is funding media and who is funding different sources and obviously, it’s a danger and particularly when you have a very challenging environment and people are on edge”, she stressed.
Professor Wing observes partisan governance has highly polarized Ghana’s political environment, making election contest very keen.