Boycott Politicians Who Declare Election Results - EC

The chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan has asked the media not to cover news conferences organised by politicians to declare election results during the forthcoming general election.

He pointed out that no politician or group of politicians have the legal right and power to declare election results except the Electoral Commission which has been mandated by law to do so.

Dr Afari-Gyan said the actions of such unscrupulous politicians could create confusion and throw the country into chaos.

He made the call at the first Western Regional Special Inter-party Advisory Committe forum held at Takoradi on Tuesday.

The forum attended by representatives of political parties had as its theme: 'Building stakeholders confidence in the outcome of the 2008 elections'.

Dr Afari-Gyan therefore appealed to the media not to allow themselves to be used by such politicians to mislead the nation for their own selfish interest.

He explained that what the parties could do is to collate the results of the election from their representatives at the polling stations and to wait on the Electoral Commission to declare the final results of the election.

The Electoral Commission is an independent Institution and nobody can dictate to it, not even the President of the state, Dr Afari-Gyan asserted.

He said it was to ensure transparency in the nation’s electoral processes that the Electoral Commission had over the years involved parties in its operations right from registration of voters through to collation of election results.