CSOs must regulate awful behaviours during elections - EC

Mrs Pauline Adobea-Dadzawa, a Commissioner of the Electoral Commission (EC), in charge of the Central Region on Thursday charged Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to regulate awful societal behaviours during elections.

She said elections come with tension, and it was important for such institutions to help diffuse the stress during those periods.

Mrs Adobea-Dadzawa was addressing a day’s engagement with CSOs, CBOs and FBOs on “enhancing participation and stakeholder confidence in Ghana’s electoral process” in Ho.

She said their roles went beyond election awareness and voter education, and urged them to give some focus to activities that would make elections less stressful.

Mrs Adobea-Dadzawa said one of the ways they could ensure that was to visit churches and other religious gatherings and make the people aware that elections were not “do or die” affairs.

She also urged them to help identify and advocate the election of best candidates with broad acceptability, and not wait for, “criminals and wrong candidates to be elected.”

Mrs Adobea-Dadzawa asked the CSOs and CBOs to support the empowerment of female candidates in local government elections, to increase the participation of disadvantaged groups in decision-making at that level.

Participants called for a regulation on posting of campaign materials in towns, because they became eyesores after elections.

They suggested that local Assemblies prepared special places for posting of such materials for a fee.