The CEO of Literacy Ambassadors Ghana(LAG), Mr Mathias Tulasi has called on the Electoral Commissioner to immediately reverse its decision to allow only few media outlets access to collation centres during the upcoming general elections but should rather focus her attention on getting her arithmetic right this time around so as to give an accurate percentage so that doesn’t exceed 100%.
It is important for the Electoral Commission to focus on prioritizing transparency and accuracy in their vote counting and declaration processes.
EC’s ability to correctly tally and announce election results this time round, which is crucial for maintaining public trust and ensuring the legitimacy of the electoral process is high on the demand and that should be the focus of Madam Jean Mensa led EC and not trying to gag the media outlets for dubious reasons.
The fact remains that allowing interested media stations to cover the election is essential for promoting transparency and accountability.
As a matter of fact, a free and independent press plays a vital role in reporting on the electoral process, providing citizens with accurate and unbiased information, and holding the EC and other stakeholders accountable for their actions and not the bias approach they want to adopt.
Such restrictions are archaic and undermine the principle of transparency and accountability of the electoral process and an afront to our growing democracy and suppression of freedom of the media.
Common sense should tell the EC that the respective media outlets across the country serve diverse people and their needs and hence such ugly restrictions will deny a lot of the citizens information on the electoral process.
Such restrictions hinder the media’s ability to effectively cover the electoral process and to ensure accountability.
How would the EC select the media houses?
Surprisingly, print and online portals were not even considered.
Would the EC publish results on its online portal? If yes, why were news portals not even considered?
The whole idea is misdirected, mischievous, archaic and unreasonable.
It is important for EC to focus mainly on how to get its percentage right this time round and allow the media to serve the good people of Ghana.
