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Afari Gyan Warns Security Agencies |
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Ghana's Electoral Commission (EC) yesterday launched a publication on election observation with a call on the country’s security agencies to adopt a stance of zero tolerance to election-related violence regardless of its source.
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“I suppose that it can easily and clearly be seen that democratic elections require all of us as election managers and stakeholders to behave properly,” it stated.
The Commission’s Chairman, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, who made this statement in Accra, also called on government to provide the needed resources and refrain from abusing its incumbency.
“The political parties and candidates must carry out clean campaigning, devoid of violence and intimidation” and “the media must report political events and other happenings accurately, as a means of helping the electorate to make informed choices.”
According to the EC Chairman, the factors he mentioned formed the basis of every democratic election and should therefore be upheld. “The electorate must register and vote only once and they must not prevent others from doing the same.”
Another important aspect of democratic election, Dr. Afari-Gyan stated, “Is said to be that an election management body or electoral commission mediates the contest between parties and candidates”.
Turning to the 18-page publication, “Framework For Domestic Election Observation,” Dr. Afari-Gyan said his outfit came out with the booklet because it wanted to assist domestic election observers to go about their work in a professional manner.
Three advantages of domestic election observation over the international one are that:
“It is less costly, so more observers could be deployed for the same amount of money; it is suited to long-term observation of the electoral process” and “domestic observers have more intimate knowledge of the local situation.”
Kathrin Meissner, Resident Director of the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, financiers of the publication, was happy that Ghana had made great strides at consolidating democracy. “Yet, wherever there are elections, where there is power to gain and competitions to win, there is also suspicion that everyone is playing fair. Be that true or not, such allegations have destabilizing effects and can endanger a peaceful atmosphere.”
International observers were reducing in number and thus there was the need for more domestic observers to take over.
She was convinced that the implementation of the guidelines would contribute significantly to eradicating fraud and suspicion of fraud in elections in Ghana.
“I can only hope that the framework will be applied by all domestic observers to ensure that Ghana can live up to its very positive image of a stable democracy,” she stated. |
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