Accra, Ghana//-The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and its affiliates, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), and the Affirmative Action Bill Coalition have set up Media for Electoral Reform Forum (Media Forum), the first of the kind to press for electoral reforms ahead of the country’s 2024 general elections.
The Media Forum project, according to senior officials of CDD-Ghana and CODEO seeks to make reforms in areas such as election management, parliamentary election petition adjudication, and the Affirmative Action Bill.
To this end, the Media Forum comprising journalists, editors from the print, electronic and digital media as well as media associations is targeting electoral reforms at the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC); political parties; IPAC, Parliament, Council of State, CSOs, and the media.
Target areas
The Forum is also pushing for judicial reforms in the Judicial Service of Ghana, Council of State, CSOs, and the media. It is targeting the almost forgotten Affirmative Action Bill at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection; Children and Gender Committee of Parliament; the Executive; Political Parties; CSOs, and the media.
To achieve the objectives of the project, the capacities of journalists would be built to enable them to advocate for electoral reforms that would improve integrity, transparency, and peaceful elections in Ghana, the Director of Programmes and Policy Engagement of CDD-Ghana, Dr Kojo Asante said at the maiden meeting of the Media Forum.
Activities
In a presentation, the Programs Officer of CDD-Ghana, Joseph Oti Frimpong said the Forum would undertake numerous activities aimed at promoting transparent, credible, inclusive, and peaceful elections in Ghana.
He added that an inception meeting and orientation would be held to build the understanding and capacity of participants on the project and its interventions, and issues of electoral reforms including learning lessons and experiences from other African countries.
As part of cultivating the media as capable allies in advancing advocacy on the proposed reforms, two zonal (Northern and Southern) capacity-building workshops would be held for 70 selected media practitioners from across the country, Mr Frimpong said.
“These will include broadcast journalists and editors. They will be sensitized on all the proposed reforms and the benefits of supporting advocacy to have these reforms passed”.
He further stated that after the capacity-building workshop, the idea of a community of practice would be promoted to ensure that journalists do stories, write articles, or organise programs aimed at promoting the proposed reforms to amplify and saturate the media spaces with discourse that promotes electoral reforms particularly ahead of the elections in December 2024.
Expected outcome
Members of the Media Forum have a full understanding of the electoral reforms project; the capacity of members of the Forum built to advocate for reforms; and advocacy for electoral reforms on various media platforms.
Role of the Members of the Media Forum
Mr Frimpong noted that the roles of the Forum are to assist in recruiting resource persons for the training of journalists, recruit journalists to be trained for the advocacy on electoral reforms, participate and monitor the various training sessions for the media, and offer recommendations for the successful implementation of the Media Forum.
Welcome
Welcoming the newly formed Media Forum, the National Co-ordinator of Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), Albert Arhin, observed that although Ghana has had a stable democracy over the thirty years, the country still faces challenges as regards election results management, parliamentary petition adjudication and the representation of women in governance.
CDD-Ghana, CODEO and the Affirmative Action Bill with the support of the European Union would like to address these challenges ahead of the 2024 general elections, he said.
“To effectively implement the project, we need the expertise of the media to assist in our advocacy for reforms to address the challenges. This is the rationale behind the formation of the Media for Electoral Reform Forum (Media Forum). The Media Forum aims to provide a platform for open dialogue and constructive discussions on electoral reform in Ghana”.
Through the collaboration between the CDD-Ghana and the media, Mr Arhin hopes to use the various platforms to advocate for reforms to ensure transparent, credible, and peaceful elections in Ghana.
Newly appointed convenors
The Head of the Africa News Desk and Parliamentary correspondent for GhanaWeb, Nimatu Yakubu Atouyese; and Wilberforce Asare of Asaase Radio were appointed as the convenors of the Media Forum.
African Eye Report
