The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) in conjunction with the Civic Forum Initiative have held the launch of the National Elections situation Room to fight against misinformation and disinformation before ,during and after the 2024 Elections.
The initiative which was set up between IDEG and its Civil Society partners and donor partners starting from the 2008 Elections is meant to provide a 24 hour round the clock observation and monitoring of elections and related matters across the country to inform policy decisions amongst all stakeholders in the electoral process to keep the election processes transparent and accountable to the general public in the country’s democratic dispensation.
The launch of this year’s National Elections Situation Room was held at the premises of the Institute on Wednesday , December 4,2024 with donor partners, sister CSOs , the media and other key partners in the space in attendance .
Delivering the Keynote address at the event, the Executive Director of the Institute, Dr Emmanuel Akwetey on the theme “ Strengthening CSO Coordination for Credible and Peaceful Election Outcomes “ intimated the relevance of the Elections Situation Rooms in the scope of enhancing accountability and transparency in the full electoral processes , as well as helping key actors like the Electoral Commission , observer missions and security agencies have a full hold on happenings across the nation to shape timely policy decisions in real time.
” The concept of an Elections Situation Room at the national level with corresponding branches in the regions during the voting cycles was mooted in 2008 by IDEG and its partners to create a round the clock and responsive setup to monitor the happenings associated with the polling activities before , during and after the exercise to throw light on the activities and help the various stakeholders take timely policy decisions that uphold the sanctity of the democratic process of choosing leaders for the country.
The idea was birthed by not only CSOs but a good number of organizations from the religious groupings , business groups and organized labour to be able to leverage on their collective strength of their members to complement the efforts of principal actors like the Electoral Commission , security agencies as well as political parties which strengthens the public belief in the outcome of the various elections under our 4th Republican constitutional democracy and seeks to get the compelling answers from concerned duty bearers “.
Also, Dr Akwetey added that the concept of situation rooms in election years are very essential to helping shed light on likely occurrences which might happen across the various polling stations on voting day .
His worry was that with the recent proliferation of the setup across a cross section of not only the media and civil society groups and advocated that there must be a regulation of what type of information such setups churn out to the public in the coming years in order not to dilute credible information which might cause some tensions across the primary beneficiaries of the Election day.
” The National Elections Situation Room and its successes in 2008 was of massive help to the sanctity of the voting process and related activities of collating and declaration of results which calmed tensions down and subsequently got more partners onboard from other interested social groupings and was also used to shepherd resultant by-elections post 2008.
The major worry for us as originators is that there exists a proliferation of the situation room concept across diverse interest groups across intervening electoral years ranging from media actors ,to security agencies to mention a few , which might dilute the intended purpose of the concept as introduced by IDEG AND CFI almost a decade and half ago.
And as any creation of society , there must be a deliberate regulation of same in order not for the concept to be abused and used as a tool for misinformation and disinformation by certain groups to undermine the transparency and openness in the conduct of public elections and such conversations must be left in the ambit of CSOs actors who have the requisite and original competencies to police the boundaries of such laudable mechanisms”.
Furthermore, the Co- Chair of the Civic Forum Initiative and Co- Chair of the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) , Rev, Dr Fred Deegbe underscored the very vital and priceless role , CODEO plays in the scheme of preserving the democracy of Ghana and helping all stakeholders to uphold the dignity of the outcomes of same polls that must reflect the true will of the people.
He advised all local stakeholders in the process to take a keen interest in the democratic duties of electing leaders to serve the nation as the electorate will be the main recipients of the dividends of how their political choices were exercised.
” There are many groups and actors both within and without the country that are genuinely interested in the safe outcomes of Elections in Ghana given the global nature of happenings in recent times , it still behoves on the local observers in particular to take a keen interest in the sanctity of the electoral process with groups like CODEO and its partners in the civic and religious space owning the process of policing the polls independent of assigned state institutions as well as carry the general public along on all related activities.
The foreign observers are fully welcome as we always same to them , but their influence will not be as impactful as the native Ghanaians in whose thumbs rests the sovereign will to elect leaders that through their actions or inactions will directly affect the living conditions of the voting public”.
