PRESS RELEASE
TO: ALL MEDIA HOUSES DATE: 22nd November 2024
AFRICAN ELECTORAL INSTITUTE URGES ELECTORAL COMMISSION TO LIVE UP TO ITS MANDATE ON VOTER EDUCATION BY ADDRESSING ELECTORAL MISINFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION AHEAD OF 7TH DECEMBER ELECTIONS
As Ghana approaches its presidential and parliamentary elections on December 7th, 2024, the African Electoral Institute urges the EC of Ghana to intensify its voter education drive since unscrupulous persons are filling in the gap. By doing the above, the EC will kill two birds with one stone:
1. It will properly inform voters and all stakeholders on what is required of them on the Election Day.
2. It will equally alleviate intentional or unintentional information on schedules and requirements for all participants in the electoral process come December 7th 2024.
The AEI wants to further draw the EC and the Security Task Force attention to a particular misinformation and disinformation that it had sighted circulating in the Ghanaian media space by certain journalists and politicians. These individuals are spreading misinformation and disinformation regarding the electoral process such as:
- Individuals were sighted telling Ghanaians that the elections won’t happen on just one day but different days for different candidates. Which is indeed unfortunate.
- That voters can’t even remain outside the polling station cordon area.
The institute is of the view that the above are serious misinformation and disinformation that undermines the efforts of the Electoral Commission, Civil Society Organizations and the Security Services in providing incident-free elections on December 7th. These misinformation and disinformation are calculated to increase voter apathy or disenfranchised voters.
We concede that some of these may also be out of ignorance on the part of the informer. Either way these affect the work of the EC and CSOs in providing accurate electoral education to the citizens of Ghana which affects the integrity of the process.
The African Electoral Institute is therefore deeply concerned about the impact of this misinformation and disinformation on the integrity of the upcoming elections. Thus, it is crucial that all citizens have access to accurate and reliable information to make informed decisions at the polls.
The African Electoral Institute call upon the Electoral Commission to take immediate action to address this issue. Specifically, we urge the Commission to:
Publicly Denounce Misinformation: Issue a public statement clarifying the correct electoral procedures and denouncing any false information being circulated.
Enhance Public Education Efforts: Intensify efforts to educate the public on the electoral process through various media channels, ensuring that accurate information reaches all citizens.
Translate Voter Education into local dialects for easy and effective dissemination: speak to voters in a predominant language.
Monitor and Report Misinformation and disinformation and Call for Accountability: The law enforcement agencies to investigate and take appropriate action against individuals or groups found
to be deliberately spreading false information about the electoral process.
The African Electoral Institute believes that these measures are essential to safeguard the integrity of the elections and ensure that all citizens can participate in a free, fair, and transparent electoral process.
The African Electoral Institute stands ready to support the Electoral Commission in any way possible to combat misinformation and uphold the democratic values of our nation.
- End-
SIGNED
Joshua Adjin-Tettey
Director of Communications and External Relations
0540904550
Engr. Judge Hasford Quartey
Deputy Director of Communications and External Relations.
0547510174
Ex. WO1 Alhaji Yussif Mahamah
*Electoral Security Department
0243311965
About Us:
African Electoral Institute ( AEI) is a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) founded to deliver sustainable electoral solutions to Emerging and Developed Democracies to strengthen, augment, and build electoral stakeholders capacity and participation on electoral issues through electoral education on voter’s rights and freedom, electoral research, election monitoring, election observation, election results collation, election security awareness and training of polling agents and elections directors underscoring the fact that “elections are won at the polling stations’’ and the participation of all identifiable electoral stakeholders in an electoral process such as Political Parties, Governmental Institutions, underpinning transparency and accountability for a free, fair, and credible elections in Africa and the wider world.
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