NCCE cautions political parties against misinformation
Mr Eric Bortey, Eastern Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has cautioned leadership of all political parties to stop their field officers from misinforming their followers on the outcome of the Supreme Court verdict that they claim they already know.
“While there are visible signs of sanity in the media following the touch-line position of the Supreme Court, some members of the political parties in the electoral petition are polluting the minds of their anxious members with lies,” he said.
Mr Bortey was addressing the media in Koforidua on the NCCE preparation in the area towards peaceful acceptance of the Court’s Verdict on the electoral petition.
He said some of the leaders had been telling their gullible supporters that they had already won the case and that the worse verdict would be a re-run of the presidential election.
“This is very dangerous because we all know that the Supreme Court has not given any judgment,” Mr Bortey said.
Mr Bortey said what that meant was that while there appeared to be some decorum on the airwaves for obvious reasons, the new strategy was to prepare the minds of the ordinary people to accept only one result, adding “this is where the danger lies”.
He therefore appealed to the leadership of the political parties to tell their functionaries at the lower levels to put an end to that type of misinformation.
Mr Bortey said no matter the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling, the ultimate winners are Ghanaians.
He urged the media to manage the verdict in such a way as not to infuriate members of the party that might lose.
“The Supreme Court’s adjudication of the electoral petition appears to be one of the potential test cases for the progress of Ghana’s democracy,” he said.
“Everywhere in Ghana, there is an increasing recognition that sustainable peace and development are bed-fellows, it is therefore imperative on our part as civic educators to do all in our power to avert anything that will derail the prevailing peace the country is currently enjoying,” Mr Bortey said.
Source: GNA