The Chairman of the STAR-Ghana Steering Committee, Prof Akilagpa Sawyerr, has charged Ghanaians to deal with the many problems that undermine credible elections in the country ahead of the 2016 polls.<\/p>\n
He says\u00a0it is not enough for the entire nation to call for free and fair elections when the main governance issues have not been\u00a0addressed.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”ar08xOFfDSVa4LIzHELLuj0zHPYVcpbh”]Speaking at a forum on the 2016 elections in Accra, Prof Sawyerr said it is important for the entire nation to think deeply about how to improve Ghana\u2019s democracy as this is key to the development of the country.<\/p>\n
“We cannot talk about free credible elections without addressing the fundamental issues that lie at the root of the challenges that we all identify. It is important that these underlying governance issues that affect the electoral system are properly dealt with.\u00a0We’ve got to go beyond the surface phenomenon and address the root problems.” he noted.<\/p>\n
Prof Akilagpa Sawyerr who is also a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana and a former member of the Council of State, who was setting the tone for a Roundtable discussion on Star Ghana’s election call programme, believes the nation cannot improve its governance if it\u00a0always runs to donor\u00a0agencies to monitor and support\u00a0its elections.<\/p>\n
On his part,\u00a0a US-based Ghana Professor of law, H. Kwasi Prempeh, identified some key problems that he says are likely to\u00a0affect the conduct of successful elections in 2016.<\/p>\n
Among them he says are the increasing dip in the credibility of the Electoral Commission, the constituency creation and boundary settings, the determination of who qualifies to vote especially following allegations of some foreign nationals on the voters’ register, the bigger issue of financing the activities of the EC\u00a0and national elections, ensuring sustainable peace and security before, during and after elections and the use of gate speech, inflammatory language and dangerous campaigning tactics.<\/p>\n
Prof.\u00a0Prempeh believes the issues raised above will determine the credibility and success of the results.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Raymond Acquah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Chairman of the STAR-Ghana Steering Committee, Prof Akilagpa Sawyerr, has charged Ghanaians to deal with the many problems that undermine credible elections in the country ahead of the 2016 polls. He says\u00a0it is not enough for the entire nation to call for free and fair elections when the main governance issues have not been\u00a0addressed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":173719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[2183,38,2176],"yoast_head":"\n