Step up education on elections - Media urged

media has been asked to do more to aid voters to have better understanding of the electoral process and the rules governing the election to ensure the successful conduct of next month’s general polls.

Nana Kwesi Gyan Apenteng, Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), said the priority should be on helping everybody to play by the rules of the game.

He made the call at a forum organised in Kumasi, to discuss a monitoring report on the media coverage of the election in the Ashanti Region.

The monitoring was done by the NMC, with support from the European Union (EU), and involved content analysis of 10 radio stations in Kumasi over a period of three months.

He reminded journalists to put a spotlight on the activities of the Electoral Commission (EC) and to get all to work together for a free, fair and credible election on December 7.

Mr. George Sarpong, Executive Secretary of the NMC, who earlier presented the report, indicated that the media’s coverage in the region had been skewed towards the two main political parties – the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) giving little attention to the EC and the other political parties.

While NPP got 42 per cent of the coverage, the NDC received 36 per cent with the EC getting seven per cent and the other political parties sharing the remaining 15 per cent.

The trend, he said, was not helpful as the people had largely been kept uninformed about the electoral laws.

Mr. Sarpong pointed out that the situation could only fuel rumour, speculation and conjecture.

He underlined the need to give fair coverage to the activities of all the political parties.