The Electoral Commission’s (EC) public relations machinery broke down during the election period and when it even functioned, it was weak and wobbly, Mr Richard Adongo, a Convention People’s Party’s (CPP) stalwart, has said.
Mr Adongo, who was representing the CPP at a Post-election stakeholders review workshop on the 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary elections at Ada, said the EC was caught in the middle of a banter between the main political parties at a time when it needed to portray itself as the one in charge.
According to him, the situation created confusion and suspicion among the Ghanaian population especially when it became obvious that one political party saw no fault with the operations of the Commission.
The workshop which was attended by representatives of political parties, civil society, the electoral Commission, journalists and other stakeholders, was organised by the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO).
The two-day event sought to discuss and critique issues such as consolidating best practices and learning from gaps/omissions during the conduct of the 2018 polls, the EC, the media and the collation of results and announcements/declaration of election results: Successes and challenges, the lingering subject of compiling a credible voter register, the media and coverage of the Elections and Election and campaign financing in Ghana as well as electoral corruption (vote buying and abuse of incumbency).