Civil society organisations launch national elections situation room for Ghana Election 2024

The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) and the Civic Forum Initiative (CFI) have jointly launched a national Election Situation Room to foster transparent and credible 2024 general polls.

It also aims to control the uncoordinated proliferation of civil society situation rooms across the country.

The "Command Centre" idea, which was mooted in 2008, is also to coordinate activities of field observers and receive swift reports for dissemination.

The bottom line is to uphold the principle that underpins the nation's three decades of parliamentary democracy.

Significance

The Executive Director, IDEG, Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, said the room would help collect data, provide analysis and communicate the same to the public.

He said the IDEG-CFI collaboration was also to link up with other stakeholders and send credible information to authorities in good time for action to be taken.

"It is to strengthen networks, coordination, collaboration and documentation of these experiences systematically and publish same," Dr Akwetey said.

He expressed hope that in future, situation rooms could help bring about reforms in the country's body politic.

Dr Akwetey said that the situation room concept was born out of the fear of violence ahead of the 2008 general election, adding that the initiative could be translated into policy formation and the country’s electoral process.

The IDEG-CFI situation room would be working for 12 hours each day but the coverage period would be increased to 24 hours on election day until the final declaration of results.

A team of experts have been put together to handle internal communication, and processes and put it out externally.

Peace

A former General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Dr Fred Deegbe, who launched the situation room, called for a peaceful election and a united nation.

Just as the country had been able to navigate through the challenges of previous elections, he expressed optimism that this year’s polls would also be successful.

The Head of Advocacy and Institutional Relations, IDEG, Kwesi Jonah, said elections had become a sensitive national event because of the potential it has to create violence.

He said it was the reason IDEG and CFI were collaborating with national electoral bodies and security services to have a smooth and peaceful poll.

The IDEG-CFI situation room adds to the number of such initiatives already in the system, including those by the Ghana Police Service and the Media Commission.