Editor for the Ghanaian Publisher Newspaper, Yaw Obeng Manu has stated that missing names of journalists in the Special Voting list, released by the Electoral Commission ahead of the December 7 general elections will gravely affect reportage on the elections.
According to him, media practitioners and reporters whose names are missing will end up going to cast their votes instead of reporting on the December 7 elections.
“There are a lot of disadvantages for media practitioners who do not have their names on the special voting list. As an editor, you cannot dispatch your reporters to areas you want them to report from as they will have to vote in their constituencies first. If this happens, reporters will be limited”.
The editor motioned, if journalists partake in the early voting, they can properly plan areas they would cover during the election to keep the citizenry informed. “Now journalists cannot cover areas and flashpoints because they were not on the special voting list”, he reiterated.
He made this statement in an interview with Sefa-Danquah, host of Happy 98.9 FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show.
Yaw Obeng Manu who wished all journalists had their names on the special voting list admitted the Electoral Commission often failed to capture the names of all journalists on the list.
“This must not be considered as a failure on the part of anybody. It is not surprising and it is not the first time this has happened even though it should not happen”, he stated.
General Secretary of the Ghana Journalists Association, Kofi Yeboah, revealed that majority of journalists cannot take part in the Special Voting in the December general elections.
This according to him, is because the details of the affected journalists are missing in the Special Voting list that was released by the Electoral Commission ahead of the December 7 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
“…When the list came out, most of the journalists and media people didn’t have their names on the list.”
By: Joel Sanco