The EC is working very hard at putting and applying ICTs that have been tested and proven for the effective delivery of election results at the forth-coming elections. This hint was given by Mr. Hubert Akumiah of the Electoral Commission in his speech at the opening ceremony of the 2-day training workshop for journalist as preparation towards effective reporting of the Ghana 2008 elections; held at the Ghana International Press Centre on the 9th and 10th of October 2008, and organised by International Institute for Information and Technologies (ICT) Journalism, GJA, GINKS and other partners.
Mr Akumiah said that the EC is particularly interested in the "60 difficult areas", which are communities of the country where road accessibility, communication infrastructure and electricity are lacking; by using radio transmission and satellite systems. He also mentioned that in other areas, the EC will beef up their traditional information strategies, by also applying ICTs and is even considering partnering with stakeholders to put up electronic bill boards in order to transmit the results digitally.
Also at the ceremony, the director in charge of elections (EC), Mr. Achim, advising the media on the importance of giving the right information concerning what is going on during elections, said that only the EC has the authority to announce the results of an election after the due process for the collation of results has been followed. To this extent, he enjoined the media that they must remember to indicate in their report that what they are giving out to the public as the outcome of a particular election is clearly indicated as a "provisional result".
Whether or not the EC will succeed in living up to their words within the next 54 days remains to be seen, and while I sincerely wish them the best in this endeavour (truly hoping that it is a dream that will come to pass) I wonder why we should not explore a few other alternatives such as conducting elections at these so called difficult areas sometime before December.
If it works in the USA, proper voter education could guarantee its success in Ghana.
Your comments will be most appreciated.
source : www.africanelections.org
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