Media Practitioners have been urged to whip up the interest of the people, to turn out for the forthcoming District Level Elections (DLE) slated for March this year.
The Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission in charge of operations, Mr Amadu Sulley, made the call during a Media training workshop on the theme: “Improving the Quality of Information in the Electoral Process,” organized by the Commission in Bolgatanga for media practitioners.
The Deputy Chairman regretted that unlike the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections where people turned out in their numbers to vote, it was usually not so with district level elections.
He mentioned that the highest turn-out was 59 per cent which occurred in 1988 and 1999 before the coming into force of the 1992 Constitution.
“The highest under the 1992 Constitution was 41.6 per cent in 1998. This is very regrettable because local government is self-government,” Mr Sulley pointed out.
He, therefore, prevailed upon the Media to support the Commission, by whipping up the interest of more people to stand for the DLEs and the Unit Committee Elections, as well as turn out in their numbers to cast their votes during the elections.
Mr Sulley also impressed upon media professionals to study the electoral laws, so that they could inform the electorate better to make informed choices.
Speaking on some of the challenges confronting the DLEs, the Deputy Chairman stated that compared to the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, it was very expensive to organize the district level elections.
He said whilst under the Presidential Elections, one set of ballot papers were printed and 275 set of ballots printed for parliamentary, that of the District Assembly and Unit Committee Elections were 6,156 set of ballots each.
The Deputy Chairman stated that it was wrong under the law for aspiring Assembly Persons to use party colours and slogans for campaigns, and seek support from Political Parties during campaign, and entreated the Media to help expose such persons.
The Regional Director of the Commission, James Arthur-Yeboah, who lauded the efforts of USAID for supporting the programme, called on Journalists to bring to bear the knowledge acquired at the training on elections, reporting particularly in the forthcoming one.
