She has expressed worry that the media has not given much attention to relevant reforms and policies being adopted by the Commission ahead of the polls.
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Speaking at a workshop organised by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping training Centre, Mrs Charlotte Osei said "a discredited EC is a recipe for disaster."
She expressed worry that the media has not given much attention to relevant reforms and policies being adopted by the Commission ahead of the polls.
"There has been no publication in the media seriously examining the more than 20 reforms which the electoral commission is implementing in this year’s election cycle and their consequences on the elections, we have not seen a single report on how the results can actually be compromised or manipulated from an operational perspective; which will now require that the media will call on the EC to resolve those operational gaps that they have identified.
“Yet every day we are inundated with spurious reports in the media of how the EC and the chair of the EC as a person are rigging the election; and these comments are reported with extreme speed and glee and it's just amazing to us," she said.
“It’s 115 days or 145 days to elections; whatever way parliament decides. We are yet to see an analysis of the manifestos of the political parties and the strength and weaknesses of their proposals. You should be asking how they intend to solve our myriad of problems. How they propose to govern this country, yet everyday not a single manifesto; politics takes probably 90% of our media reportage, sports take another 5% then education, infrastructure, healthcare and all get to share the remaining 5%.“It is not important to us that politicians talk everyday but have no manifestos; we haven’t shown any concern. What is important to us seems to be the supposed screensaver on the phone of the chair of the EC as seen by the overactive imagination of the political party activist. And so we continue as a society and as members of the media to fail in holding our political players to higher standards”.
The theme for the workshop was: "Towards a peaceful elections: Reporting on elections and security in 2016."