The Western Region Chapter of the Ghana Journalists Association, GJA has launched an election project dubbed the; ” Western Region Manifesto Project” under the theme, Harnessing Digital Journalism for Informed Dialogue and Manifesto Scrutiny”.
This project is to facilitate the capacity and power of electorates including party manifestos whilst holding duty bearers, particularly elected parliamentarians and government to account.
According to the President of the GJA, Desmond Cudjoe in a press statement, the overarching objective of the project is to amplify the voices of electorates on critical issues that matter to their development and communities.
In a statement, the project will facilitate the capacity and power of electorates in influencing political party manifestos while holding duty bearers, particularly elected parliamentarians and government to account.
The statement adds that four major activities are designed for the project, which seeks to build capacity for journalists on election monitoring and reporting, serialized town hall meetings across 7 designated constituencies, where electorates could freely articulate their needs and expectations to political actors.
Apart from that, there would be political parties’ campaign monitoring and radio dialogues on topical issues uncovered pre-election, during and post-election.
It concluded that the GJA Western Region will employ a universal platform and community discussion board to excite conversations on electoral and development issues peculiar to each constituency and the Western Region.
The project will also engage various disciplines and actors including the parliamentary and presidential candidates, police, traditional authorities, the clergy, youth, women and other influential groups in the region.
The Association, however, is optimistic that the project will empower electorates and residents to demand accountability from political leadership.
