AND RELEASES ITS NOVEMBER ELECTION ENVIRONMENT REPORT

By- Mohammed Saani Ibrahim/ The Accra Times

The Coalition for Domestic Election Observers [CODEO] has interacted with a cross section of the media on its Parallel Voter Tabulation [PVT] for election 2012. The PVT election observation methodology is a powerful citizen’s tool for monitoring the conduct of polling on Election Day and for verifying official results as announced by Election Management Bodies. According to Dr. Franklin Oduro, the CODEO Election 2012 Project Manager, the PVT will enable CODEO to promote free, fair and transparent elections and to detect or prevent electoral fraud. The PVT also has the objectives to promote electoral peace, build public confidence in the electoral process and to encourage citizen participation in the upcoming electoral process. He indicated that the PVT which generally contributes to electoral transparency, integrity and credibility will thereby strengthen Ghana’s democratic system. In addition the PVT can effectively diffuse tension by providing timely information on the conduct of the polls. In a related development, CODEO has released its pre-elections environment for the Month of November. The report which is the sixth in its series and the last before the December 7th Poll indicated that the political and electoral environments although tensed up, remains largely peaceful. The report shows the Electoral Commission’s readiness to conduct the upcoming polls with earnests preparations whiles political parties with both Presidential and Parliamentary candidates intensifying their various campaign activities in their various Constituencies and Regions. The report however indicated an increase rate of defacing of rival political party posters in the constituencies with the National Democratic Congress[ NDC] and the New Patriotic Party[NPP] being the most affected. While the media remains one of the major platforms for campaigning and conducting public education in the constituencies, it has also increasingly become a platform for personality attacks, the report says.

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) organizes parliamentary candidates debates and continues its civic and peace education campaigns in the communities whilst Civil Society groups have stepped up their campaign towards issue-base politics ahead of the elections.

The November Report issued in Accra and signed by Mr. John Larvi, the CODEO National Coordinator, is based on weekly reports filed by the Coalition’s Pre-election Field Observers (FOs) who have been deployed to 100 Districts in over 100 Constituencies throughout the country to observe the pre-election environment.