<<Print>>THE ASHANTI Regional Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Paul Boateng, has disclosed that it takes a long and systematic process for national elections to be rigged.
The EC chief was of the view that it is extremely difficult to rig elections just in a day, maintaining that rigging elections is a long and tedious task which demands a lot of time, planning and processes.
He said demarcation of electoral areas, registration of potential voters, intimidation, prevention of eligible voters from voting and changing of electoral results all form part of processes aimed at rigging polls.
Mr Boateng condemned all electoral malpractices which could contribute to election results being tampered with, urging all and sundry to play roles to prevent election rigging.
According to him, ensuring a free and fair election is not the sole duty of the EC, stressing the need for the populace to play vital roles so as to ensure that all polls held in the country are free and fair.
He was addressing scores of journalist in Kumasi on Wednesday at a one-day workshop on Election Reporting, Constitutional Reform and Consensus Building at the Miklin Hotel.
Organised by the US Embassy in Ghana in collaboration with the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), the educative programme was aimed at enhancing the journalists’ reportage on elections.
Mr Boateng appealed to religious leaders, notably pastors, to always preach about free and fair elections to their congregations so that it would be imbibed by the people.
“Ensuring free and fair elections is a difficult task which requires the efforts of all; the EC alone cannot do it,” he noted, urging the media, security agencies, civil society groups, judiciary and others to all come on board.
Kim Williams, Press Attache, US Embassy, Ghana, urged journalists in Ghana to always practise strictly according to the ethics of their profession, assuring that the US Embassy would continue to support journalists in the discharge of their duties.
Prof Susanna Wing, Associate Professor of Political Science, USA, noted that “Ghana is in a terrific place when it comes to the freedom of the press…,” admonishing media practitioners to always work according to their work ethics.
She said journalists have power in society and pointed out that “the power that you have comes with responsibility,” stressing the need for journalists to be objective and accurate in their reports.