IEA tasks EC to create more polling stations for Election 2012

The Electoral Commission (EC) has been tasked to create more polling stations for Election 2012 to reduce the number of voters at each polling station.

The creation of more polling stations will reduce to the barest minimum the number of voters and avoid long and winding queues that have the potential of creating problems, a communiqué issued at the end of a day’s workshop organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs in Accra stated.

A copy of the communiqué made available to the Ghana News Agency by Mr Ernest Twum of the IEA on Wednesday, also tasked political parties, especially the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to disband all political vigilante groups and put an end to the “macho men” syndrome.

“Political Parties should educate their members throughout the country on Election 2012,” the communiqué stated.

The IEA workshop on the theme: “Towards Free, Fair and Violence Free Elections in Ghana: Holding Key Stakeholders Accountable” was for Election Management Bodies and Key Election Stakeholders.

It was attended by representatives of Political Parties, National Peace Council, the EC, National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Security Services, Development Partners, the Media and other stakeholders.

The participants tasked the EC to collaborate with the NCCE and Political Parties to educate party agents on their rights and responsibilities and adoption of vigorous education of voters on the Biometric Registration Process to ensure a credible Voters Register.

“The EC and NCCE should step up education efforts to reduce the number of rejected ballots as witnessed in the 2008 election; EC should liaise with the security agencies to guarantee the security of the voter registration process and the entire electoral process,” the communiqué stated.

The workshop according to the communiqué tasked Political Parties to enforce the Political Parties Code of Conduct at all levels of the parties’ hierarchy, whilst mandating the parties to reflect on Chapter Six of the 1992 Constitution which deals with the Directive Principles of State Policy in their Election 2012 manifestos.

Politicians should not exploit the media and unemployed youth to foment trouble in the country. Political Parties must avoid tribalism and any form of hate speech in the electioneering campaign.

Politicians must be patriotic, nationalistic, honest and sincere in all their campaigns, utterances and activities.

On the Media, the communiqué tasked media houses to sign the Institute of Public Relations (IPR) Hand Book in which the media houses pledged to ensure accurate, balanced and fair reportage.

The media should help create awareness of the provisions of the 2012 Code of Conduct for Political Parties, stop the political dichotomisation of issues of national concern whilst media, particularly those with Political Party affiliations, were tasked to desist from using their platforms to indulge in unlawful conduct and provocative behaviours.

Radio stations should employ delay mechanisms to prevent inflammatory comments and insults from being aired publicly.

The Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Wood was asked to take steps to ensure that issues of political rights and electoral disputes were dealt with expeditiously by designating special or ad hoc courts for that purpose.

For the purpose of election monitoring, Regional Ministers and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives should not control Police personnel because such officials have vested interest.

The Police and other Security agencies were tasked to be professional and wean themselves of political control to ensure a peaceful and incident free election, “The Police must not permit any form of political gathering when campaigning officially closes, irrespective of the name and form it takes”.

The Police and other Security agencies should be on the lookout for individuals or groups of persons who take advantage of the social media to post inflammatory comments, videos and other forms of materials that have the potential of destabilising the peace of the country.

Civil society organisations were tasked to defend and uphold the Constitution at all times, not to allow themselves to be manipulated by politicians and to work together to organise peace marches in the run up to Election 2012.

The workshop enabled participants to reflect on the lapses of Election 2008 and identify strategies for overcoming foreseeable challenges in the run up to Election 2012.