The executive director of the Danquah Institute, Gabby Otchere Darko, says reports of political parties bussing persons to participate in the ongoing voter registration exercise have been overblown. “To me there is absolutely nothing wrong with it so long as bussing in itself is not illegal,” he said during a panel discussion on Joy FM’s flagship programme, the Super Morning Show. Mr Otchere Darko was however quick to opine that there should be a genuine cause for worry in the event that the persons are aliens with no Ghanaian citizenship. The former editor of the Statesman newspaper said providing transport for such youth would only mean complementing the effort of the Electoral Commission (EC). “We want to get as many youth as possible to vote unless of course we’re bussing them from Burkina Faso,” he added. Reports from around the country indicate the ongoing voter registration exercise has been saddled with many challenges. These have ranged from the registration of minors and foreigners, to the transportation of underage persons to polling stations, a situation the EC says is spiralling out of control. Mr Otchere Darko warned the reports rather sent strong signals of an “uninteresting” ballot in December. Gabby suggested a way out of the marsh: “… make it the responsibility of the state to train and make sure that the political parties have polling agents at all the polling stations.” Prof. Kwame Kakari, an official at the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in another interview with Joy News said although the media has played a role in garnering support for the exercise, there was still more to be done. “The media provide information and opinion. The most important thing for any media in terms of credibility is a strict adherence to the fact,” he proposed. Prof. Kakari played down speculations that the reported skirmishes in the voter registration exercise would lead to violent clashes in the December polls but warned that misunderstandings among parties might not be remote. He said media houses “should be much more alert in exposing any tendencies towards violence. …strictly curb those pronouncements that tend to support violence.” Listen to audio attachment of excerpts of the panel discussion on Joy FM Story by Fiifi Koomson