Irresponsible media recipe for Elections 2012 violence

Accra, Oct 31, GNA – Dr Vladmir Antwi Danso, Senior Research Fellow at the Legon Center for International Affairs and Diplomacy, on Monday said irresponsibility on the part of the media would pose a conducive and fertile grounds for electoral violence in Elections 2012.

He therefore called for immediate mechanisms to redress the danger through the strengthening of state institutions and democratic structures whilst empowering the masses through public awareness campaign on the terrifying side of violence.

Dr Antwi Danso stated this at the national launch of citizen's advocacy against political violence campaign on the theme: “Ghana Stands Against Political Violence,” organized by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in collaboration with Citizens Against Political Violence (CAP-Violence) movement in Accra.

Dr Antwi-Danso, also expressed disquiet about the unrealistic promises being made by political parties and politicians in their campaign messages stressing, “it was difficult to appreciate how a political party would suggest that it would provide all those things when voted into power".

He said the messages coming from the political parties meant they (Parties) had not come to terms with the real problems of the nation or were deliberately misleading the people.

According to him, Ghana, like many other third world countries, was faced with economic choices it had little control over and politicians were in no position to spring surprises, as they were promising.

Speaking on the main theme, Dr Antwi Danso noted that " a cancerous political violence is gradually degenerating into the nation's electoral environment" and called for concerted efforts to deal with it.

He noted that the practice of mediocracy instead of meritocracy in political appointments and monetization of the Ghanaian political environment was also another recipe for disaster.

Dr Michael Whyte Kpessah, Research Fellow,Institute of African Studies, also attributed political violence to the “winner-takes-all and loser goes home empty handed political system,” as a defect in a multi-functional society.

“Let's not depend solely on textbook ideology which are inimical to our social, traditional and economic environment…Africa must develop its own system where the loser is not totally excluded but accorded some form of authority”.

Dr Kpessah also cautioned against the role of the international partners in the electoral process as “these so called donor partners look at their economic interest instead of our interest, we must be careful about international partners in the electoral systems”.

The Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, chaired the national launched which was attended by security agencies representatives, politicians, civil society actors, governmental and non-governmental agencies and a cross section of the public.

GNA