Stop the irrelevant reportage - EC to media

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission Charlotte Osei has expressed concerns over what she says is the little or no attention given to relevant issues by the media as the nation creeps into the 2016 elections.

According to her, the media allows politicians to heap allegations and lies against the commission without holding them to the same high standards they demand of the commission.

Addressing the media at an election training workshop in Accra, the EC chair said it is surprising that the media does not appear concerned that the political parties have not yet out doored their respective manifestos a few months into the polls.

“...As a neutral party within all these actors within this field of elections, we would have wished that the media would be examining the policies and rules of the game as set by the EC in this elections and commenting on whether these rules ensure fair play or otherwise. Disappointingly, we have not seen this so far.

"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,” she said.

She added: “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.

“Its 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”.