Political parties must focus on voter education instead of insults
Politicians have been advised to desist from the politics of insults and acrimony on the airwaves, and to rather channel their energy and resources into voter education to help reduce the number of rejected ballots recorded in each election period.
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The Northern Regional Manager of the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Caesar Abagali, who gave the advice, said when political parties embark on voter education it would be of immense benefit to them instead of the current media “war” and insults they were engaged in.
Mr Abagali, who is also the Northern Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), was speaking as a resource person at the two-day capacity-building workshop for district directors of the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Commission for Civic Education in the Northern Region Wednesday.
The workshop was to educate electoral officers and NCCE officials on the electoral process to enable them to inculcate it to others and apply the process in the manner relevant to them.
Voter education
He noted that rejected ballots took the third position in the 2012 general elections and were even more than some of the valid votes cast for some of the presidential candidates, who contested for the elections. There is, therefore, the need for political parties to embark on voter education to help reduce or eliminate the issue of rejected ballots in this year’s general election.
He stated further that if political parties took voter education seriously they would win more votes to enable them to win the elections. He also indicated that it would also help the EC to reduce the incidence of electoral malpractices often associated with Ghana’s elections.
“Instead of insulting each other to heighten political tension in the country, politicians should rather focus on educating voters on how to vote, which will win them more votes,” he stated
He noted that the issue of rejected ballots should be a source of concern for all, especially political parties that were major stakeholders in the country’s electoral and democratic process.
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Electoral officers
He also used the occasion to advise electoral officers to be cautious about the information they put in the public domain. He said they should endeavour to deal with credible media houses that would not go and twist the facts given them to serve their own interest to the detriment of the national interest.