Head of Training at the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Serebour Quaicoe, has expressed fears about the spread of disinformation in both traditional and media ahead of the 2024 general elections.
He asked the media to be circumspect about the kind of information they publish.
Dr Quaicoe was speaking at a stakeholders’ conference on combating disinformation ahead of Ghana’s 2024 elections, organised by Penplusbytes in partnership with the International Media Support (IMS) and Research ICT Africa (RIA) and other partners, in Accra.
“My biggest fear for 2024 is disinformation because both the traditional and new media are more likely to put forward information without crosschecking with the right people.
“I am seeing ahead of that where people will be coming out with some audio and videos that may not be related to Ghana’s elections. There was that instance where a video attributed to the District Level Election… the person was in green jacket when everybody knew that in Ghana, we do not use green jacket,” he said.
Dr Quaicoe added; “I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody would be churning out results from somewhere and that person losing wouldn’t mind sponsoring people to show videos on how the election is being rigged, among others.”
He disclosed that the EC was planning to update Ghanaians through the media regularly to properly inform the public about the elections.
“This is because some people are so dogmatic that whatever comes from people in their party is the gospel truth.
“If we do not commit ourselves to the truth, you may be coming out with the right figures, but they will not believe them because the other side is saying theirs is the truth,” he said.
A lecturer at the University of Media Arts and Communication (UniMAC), Dr Edward Kwaku Asante, in a presentation, highlighted the impact of disinformation which he said suppressed the political participation of the vulnerable, particularly women and other marginalized groups.
He said fake news also created trust issues among democratic institutions, amplified voter confusion as well as galvanised social cleavages which could result in conflict.