Political parties asked to enhance monitoring of elections

Hajj Abdel Manan Abdel Rahman, Executive Director of Centre for Creativity, Ghana, (CFC-Ghana), has appealed to political parties in the country to strengthen their structures, to enable them to monitor elections at all levels.

This, he said, would prevent them from making accusations and counter-accusations any time results of general elections in the country are declared.

Hajj Rahman, who made the appeal in a statement he signed, copied to the Ghana News Agency on Monday, attributed the election dispute that arose soon after Election 2012 to lack of understanding of issues on the part of party agents.

“Some of the party agents finished signing for the results at various polling stations only to come back and contest the same results that they had endorsed,” the statement said.

The statement called on the aggrieved parties to seek legal redress since they are entitled to request for justice if they feel cheated in the just-ended election.

It appealed to the Electoral Commission and other relevant stakeholders to play their roles responsibly in order to leave very little room for political parties to make such accusations after elections.

The statement called for more electoral education for presiding and returning officers, polling agents, party agents and polling assistants, to ensure incident-free elections in the succeeding years, since they played vital roles in electioneering.

It appealed to the Judiciary to be fair and firm in the administration of electoral cases as the denial of justice to parties could escalate into chaos and anarchy.