By Benjamin A. Commey
Accra, Oct 08, GNA – The Electoral Commission says it has identified 7,250 hotspots in the country ahead of the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The figure,the Commission however, said was a decline of the 9,644 flash points it identified in the run-up to the 2020 general election.
Mr Frederick Tetteh, Deputy Director in charge of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at the EC, who disclosed this during a panel discussion at a multi-stakeholder dialogue on media and security, in Accra, on Tuesday, attributed the drop to the security measures implemented by the Commission and security agencies.
“Every general election year and even in the assembly (local elections), we identify flash points and share with the police administration as well. Currently, the number that we had in 2020, that was 9,644, if I could recall exactly has declined to 7,250,” he said.
Mr Tetteh added that “identifying a place, a particular polling station as a flash point in 2016, in 2020, it may not be a flash point. In 2020, if we identified a place as a flash point, in 2024, it may not be a flash point.
“And certainly, we do identify new ones as well, but the reduction is telling you the kind of security measures that have been put in place which gradually is reducing this.”
The dialogue, organised by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre (KAIPTC) and the Kingdom Concepts Consult, was to deepen collaboration between the media and security to ensure peace before, during and after the election.
It was held on the theme: “Safeguarding Peace before, during and after election 2024; the Role of Media and Security Actors.”
Mr Tetteh stated the Commission’s readiness to conduct a free, fair, and transparent election, indicating that it had successfully completed major steps in the electoral process to ensure a credible poll December.
Currently, he said, the Commission was printing the ballot papers after which it would issue the final voters register to the political parties.
“We’ve gone through the registration phase, the exhibition phase, and the nomination phase. Currently, we are in the phase of printing the ballot papers and then we move to issuing the final voters register to the political parties, then a special voting before the main election in December.” Mr Tetteh said.
He urged the public, especially political parties, to trust the electoral processes and the Commission to deliver a credible election come December 7.
“As has been our history, conducting free and fair elections as far as 1996 to date, the Commission will deliver free, transparent election to the people of Ghana,” he said.
Dr Jonathan Sandy, Head of the African Union Economic, Social and Cultural Council (AU ECOSOCC), urged the country to do everything possible to maintain the peace it currently enjoyed.
He warned against political campaigns on tribal, regional, ethnicity, and religious lines, noting that these had been identified as a source of electoral violence.
Major General Richard Addo Gyane, Commandant, KAIPTC, charged the media to be circumspect in their reportage to ensure that the peace of the country was maintained before and after the polls.
Dr Abena Animwaa Yeboah-Banin, Head, Department of Communication Studies, University of Ghana, urged the media and security to strike partnership to ensure effective collaboration before, during and after the polls.
“We (media and security) are not adversaries, we are advocates who should be able to support each other,” she stressed.
GNA