Watch your language in election reporting
The chairman of the electron commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, has asked election observers, monitors and media to have a common understanding of election language and avoid misinterpretations of the facts which can lead to volatile outcomes.
He said the terms which include free and fair, rigging, fraud, and irregularity must be properly used to avoid the unpredictable consequences of unwittingly playing into the hands of people who have axes to grind or frame the passions of losing politicians and their supporters”.
He was speaking at a day's workshop on improving the confidence of the public in 2008 elections through domestic election observers “ in Accra yesterday.
It was organized by the EC and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, in collaboration with the KAB Governance Consult.
Explaining the free and fair election the boss of EC said the concept prescribed conditions that must exist as a backdrop to democratic elections, as well as the appropriate behaviour that all electoral actors must exhibit.
He likened “rigging and “fraud “ to two mischievous brothers who were difficult to separate but added that while not all fraudulent acts might constitute rigging , both term refers to deliberate acts of wrongdoing intended to achieve a specific purpose, such as influencing the election results, and did not matter whether the results were or not.
He explained that 'irregularity' meant anything not done in strict adherence to the laws, rules, regulations and procedures governing the elections and said when and said when making reports the observer group look at the kinds of regularity, its distribution pattern.
“Care should be taken not to include in reports allegations of wrongdoing that could not be confirm as facts. It must not also be inventories of only things that were not done well. Credit must also be given for things done well.
He said for observers to be credited, the organisations to which they belonged must not be affiliated to any political party, they must submit a copy of the observation checklist, the names and passport photographs of each member and produce evidence that members of the group have undergone training to undertake the election observation.