Public confidence in the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana to conduct a free, fair and credible election this year is said to have reduced by more than 4%.
This is contained in a survey conducted by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) dubbed “Matters of Concern to the Ghanaian Voter.”
According to the Director of Research, Gender and Equality of the NCCE, Dr. Henrietta Asante Sarpong, statistics from the 2020 edition of the report indicates that voters in the Western region have the highest level of trust in the EC while those in the Volta Region have the lowest.
“On electoral management assessment, we had 62.2% of respondents trusting that the Electoral Commission will organise a free, fair and credible elections. There is a slight decline of trust in the EC by 4.3% between 2016 and 2020. 66.5% in 2016 and 62.2% in 2020. Trust was highest in the Western region and lowest in the Volta region”
Some of the reasons given by respondents for the mistrust in the EC include the reported inaccuracies in the compilation of the current voters register and emerging violent trends and the fact that appointment of the the top hierarchy of the EC was done by government.
Reacting to this, the Acting Director of Public Affairs at the EC, Mrs Sylvia Annoh insisted of a high level of public confidence in the Commission.
“You may not want to generalise this research because the respondents (in 2016) definitely are not the same as the 2020 edition because they (the NCCE) may have gone to different electoral areas and they may have asked different questions. But let me assure you that generally, there is a high level of trust as far as the operations of the EC is concerned and the public believes in us.”
Story by: Nathaniel Nartey.
