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The Deputy Commissioner of the Electoral Commission (EC) in charge corporate services, Mrs. Georgina Opoku Amankwa, has admitted that though chains of legal suits against the commission is affecting its calendar, December 7 is sealed for the conduct of this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

She was emphatic that nothing untowardwil force the postponement of the election date.

She was of the strongest conviction that judges presiding over a number of cases brought against the commission by some disqualified presidential aspirants and other individuals would expeditiously deal with those cases to pave the way for the elections.

“I must admit that court cases against the commission have affected our calendar but the December 7 is a must date the reason being that any attempt to reschedule the elections, especially, the presidential, would mean creating gaping hole in our democratic process since 1992,” she stressed.

“We are all highly elated that the Chief Justice has set aside 17 judges whose sole responsibility is to preside with speed over cases against the commission as time is exigent,” she indicated.

Mrs. Amankwa made this disclosure when interacting with journalists in Kumasi at a forum organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in collaboration with the EC on the theme, “Promoting Freedom of Expression and Democracy in West Africa.”

The forum aimed among other things to sensitise the media on ethics in order to avoid compromising the peace of the country.

She assured that the commission is ever determined to conduct free and fair elections to give an impetus to deepening democratic process of the country.

“The EC is committed to have fair process without bias against any political party,” she said.

According her, the body in charge of organising elections in the country would implement most of the recommendations emanated from the Supreme Court after the land mark 2012 election petition.

Mrs. Amankwah dismissed the allegations by some politicians, in particular, Mr. Kennedy Agyepong, Member of Parliament for Assin Central that the EC has planned to send malfunctioning PVDS to the strongholds of the New Patriotic Party on the Election Day in order to deny it from garnering maximum votes.

“I wonder how some of these politicians with high reputations rather rush to the media to make unsubstantiated allegations which have elements to derail the peace, I ‘m challenging him to come out with evidence if he has any or he shuts up,” she declared.

In his earlier submission, the immediate past Executive Director of the MFWA, Professor Kwame Karikari charged the media to demand probing questions from politicians when they make unsubstantiated allegations.

He said it was unacceptable for the media to be peddling lies to serve the interest of their media owners who have agenda to run down their political opponents.

“There are a number of politicians who have the penchant for lying but unfortunately, some journalists who should serve as the mouthpiece of the masses are equally following the same trend,” noted.

Professor Karikari was happy that the media is not skewed towards ethnic and gender based insults which is good for the country’s development.

He warned the media to desist from announcing the outcome of the polls ahead of the EC, especially, the presidential election.