Penplusbytes Participates In CODEO’s Post Elections Stakeholders Review Workshop

Penplusbytes is participating in a two-day post elections workshop together with other major election stakeholders in Ghana to reflect and deliberate on key issues around the 2012 Ghana elections at the Holy Trinity Spa and Health Farm at Sogakope in the Volta region.

The workshop, scheduled for 25th and 26th March 2013, will provide a platform for stakeholders to discuss and share best practices on the elections and improve on methods and processes for future elections in the country.

The workshop forms part of post-elections activities of the Coalition of Domestic Elections Observers (CODEO) and “seeks to identify the positive and negative aspects of the 2012 electoral process.”

Discussions will be based on pre-election, election-day and post-election issues. It will thus, review the preparations towards the elections, roles played by stakeholders and activities that took place after voting. Challenges in executing activities by civil society organizations will also be identified during the workshop.

According to Mr. P. N. K Aborampah Mensah of the CODEO Secretariat, “Participants will be drawn from key constitutional bodies, including the Electoral Commission and the National Commission for Civic Education, Civil Society Organizations, the media and the development partners, among other relevant stakeholders.” He adds that “presentations and discussion at the workshop will be compiled into a publication to serve as a source book on the 2012 elections, and will also serve as a reference document for electoral reforms.”

Mr. Jerry Sam, Projects Director of the African Elections Project run by Penplusbytes, who is participating in the event acknowledges that “this workshop comes at an opportune time when Ghana is entrenching its democratic credentials and using state institutions to resolve electoral disputes and hope this workshop will come up with concrete and practical solutions in conducting peaceful, transparent and credible future elections in Ghana.”

The African Elections Project was established in 2008 by the International Institute of ICT Journalism (Penplusbytes)  with the vision of enhancing the ability of journalists, citizen journalists and the news media to provide more timely and relevant elections information and knowledge while undertaking monitoring of specific and important aspects of governance and has since covered twelve elections across Africa.