Research Manager at CDD-Ghana, Daniel Armah Attoh has advised the Electoral Commission (EC) to engage in confidence building activities to re-establish public trust ahead of the December 2020 general elections.

His comment comes on the back of a recent survey by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development that a certain percentage of the general public breed worries about the vote count and result transmission process.

“Serious concerns remain about the integrity of the vote count and result transmission process.

"A large minority – more than 4 in 10 – express concerns about the wrong vote tally being announced, and about a third are not confident that their vote would be counted,” the report said.

However, during a discussion with JoyNews’ Samson Lardy Anyenini on ‘Newsfile’ Saturday, Mr. Attoh said the sentiments are contingent on the integrity and competence of the Electoral Commission.

Correspondingly, he advised that public education and assurance is crucial to building confidence in Ghana’s electoral process.

“The EC needs to do a whole lot of education because if they don’t, and at the end of the election people think their fears might have manifested, it will go back to affect their own integrity and trust level, as well as the peace that we are expected to enjoy as a country,” he noted.

On his part, the Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at CDD-Ghana, Dr. Kojo Pumpuni Asante, also a panelist on the show, explained that an understanding of the electoral procedures will help decrease public fear of doubtful results.

"The result collation, transmission and announcement process needs to be laid out very clearly, particularly now that there is a regional collation process being added, so that the citizen understands that once he is done voting at the polling station, these are the mechanisms in place to make sure that what it is that is declared is credible," he said.

He implored the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) to assist in the public education process.

Mr. Pumpuni added that the confidence of the public in the EC is based on their experiences with the activities of the Commission.

According to him, public confidence in the EC is a consequential effect of the Commission's ability to effectively execute its duties.