Some political parties have expressed differing opinions with the Electoral Commission’s (EC) handling of the publicity of the voters’ register exhibition which kicked off on Monday July 18.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Convention People’s Party (CPP), believe the EC should have done more to engage voters.
However, the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), insists the EC has done enough to ensure voters are well informed.
[contextly_sidebar id=”eeQO6XMc6hOFMgnbmrc38vRRgK6vFgIA”]Speaking to Citi News, NPP’s Director of Elections, Martin Adjei Mensah-Korsah, said the number of registered voters alone demanded more publicity.
“People are not used to this… You are talking of some 16 million registered voters so one would have expected that there would be some heightened publicity to go about this process. You have some posters that have been put around but that is not enough so I agree with those who said there ought to have been better publicity.”
The Director of Communications of the CPP, Kadril Abdul Rauf, sided with Mr. Korsah’s sentiments saying the EC needs increase to publicity efforts.
He said “we are just coming from Abetifi and we have noticed that the by-election that happened at Abetifi, the voter turnout was very low so it means when it comes to public education, the EC hasn’t done much.”
Parties can also help with publicity
However, a Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Koku Anyidoho, expressed a different opinion, saying he had “continuously heard the jingles that the EC has put out. Those who say the publicity is low, let them prove to us how low it is.”
“The important thing is that, the EC has informed the political parties and we also have the responsibility, as political parties, to educate our people and that is what the NDC is doing,” Mr. Anyidoho added.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana