Election Blackout may be Necessary

The elections are due in five days time in Ghana. Suppose an advertisement appeared on the electronic media that panicked the population. It is likely that the masses would react and if they can't be controlled, life and limb would be affected. This is purely hypothetical. But just in case, there is currently no legislation of measure in place to avoid last minute mischievous advertising with the potential of creating such chaos.

In certain countries, ironically where there is no crude politicking likely to cause violence, there is a law that bans political advertising in the dying days of an election campaign. At http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/How/backgrounders/05/index.htm, from the Australian Electoral Commission info centre, we have the following at item 47 of "Electoral Backgrounder 5 " :

" 47. There are a number of existing limits on political advertising during federal election periods, including the common law of defamation and section 350 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, and various offences in Part XXI of the Act, some of which have been discussed above. In addition, under the relevant broadcasting legislation administered by the Australian Broadcasting Authority, there is an election advertising blackout on all electronic media from midnight on the Wednesday before polling day to the end of polling day on the Saturday."

I repeat " ---under the relevant broadcasting legislation administered by the Australian Broadcasting Authority, there is an election advertising blackout on all electronic media from midnight on the Wednesday before polling day to the end of polling day on the Saturday".

Similarly, I suggest that there should be an election advertising blackout on all electronic and PRINT media from midnight on the Wednesday before polling day to the end of polling day on the Tuesday. And there should be an election coverage blackout on all electronic and print media from midnight on the Saturday before polling day to the end of polling day on the Tuesday.

Anyone who has not just returned from Mars knows why I am making the above proposals. One merely has to cast one's mind to the turn of campaign behaviours by political parties at the closing stages of the elections. And to further reflect on the fact that we Ghanaians are too quick on Western fashions but slow or sloppy in adopting efficient and disciplined institutional structures to support them.

I can anticipate all the likely reservations to my proposals above. But readers can be rest assured that I have spent some time looking at the various rationale for having a cooling off reflective period before elections. And also aware of the various reservations about a cooling off period at elections times here, mainly from the electronic media. I have thought carefully about how the cooling off can be enforced in Ghana, effectively and not through toothless self regulatory industry bodies like the NMC. Yet I am unable to do continue this article further because the tension of the coming elections is not conducive to sustained concentration, especially on the written word.

I will be back after the elections.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.