Ghana Politics Needs More Opinion Polls � Rev. Fred Deegbe

The General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Rev. Fred Deegbe has called for the institution of an active opinion poll system to gauge and sensitize the posture of the electorate before the general elections. In his opinion, this go a long way to ease all tensions ahead of elections because the polls would have given the general populace a fair idea of the possible outcome of the votes. �If we had a more active opinion poll system in this country on issues, on the candidates and their opinions and this is more regular, it will probably help tame the atmosphere so that Election Day will just be the icing on the cake�, he said. An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll, is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample in which opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then deducing generalities in ratio or within confidence intervals. Rev. Deegbe said the frequent opinion polls should be �organised over and over across the years and months of the campaigning, so when the times come and the chips are down and the votes are cast, it is almost a done deal when the results are announced.� The General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana was speaking at a two day workshop for senior media practitioners and political leaders organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and under the auspices of the Ghana Political Parties� Programme on Saturday. Speaking on the role of the media in ensuring a free and fair election, Rev Deegbe cautioned the media to focus on their professional and independent role to promote peace. �Over the years, I have realized that the media especially radio and television, devote most of their coverage to the competition between the candidates rather than providing an explanation of issues and candidates� stance on them�, he said. �Most of these media houses have become unfair and reduced their space and platforms for political attacks and insults�. Rev Deegbe also cautioned against the level of exaggeration placed on stories saying �over the years, we have seen correspondents especially those from local language news medium report political issues with unnecessary embellishment.�