{"id":1085645,"date":"2022-05-13T05:28:50","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T05:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/05\/13\/its-time-to-find-new-ways-of-running-elections-in-africa-mr-wafula\/"},"modified":"2022-05-13T05:28:50","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T05:28:50","slug":"its-time-to-find-new-ways-of-running-elections-in-africa-mr-wafula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/05\/13\/its-time-to-find-new-ways-of-running-elections-in-africa-mr-wafula\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s time to find new ways of running elections in Africa\u2014Mr Wafula"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Accra, May 12, GNA – The time is ripe for Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) in Africa to find new ways of holding elections, especially\u00a0during emergency situations.<\/p>\n
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Mr Wafula Chebukati, the President of the General Assembly of the Association of Africa Election Authorities (AAAEA), said the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions and risks calls for alternative mode to fulfil democratic tenets.\u00a0<\/div>\n
Speaking at the opening of AAEA\u2019s two-day executive meeting in Accra on Thursday, he said, the advancement of technology offered some window of opportunity that needed to be explored.<\/div>\n
Over the next two days the Executive Committee of the AAEA will discuss issues its medium-term strategic plan and share lessons on conducting elections in a global pandemic.<\/div>\n
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\u201cAs EMBs our mandate is to ensure that people choose their leaders freely through election. This constitutional mandate cannot be postponed due to emergencies like COVID-19,\u201d Mr Chebukati, who is also the Chairperson of Independent Elections Boundaries Commission of Kenya, said.
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\nHe said Kenya, on August 9, 2022 would go to the polls to elect the\u00a0President, Members of the\u00a0National Assembly and other leaders.
\n\u00a0
\nMrs Jean Mensa, the President of AAEA and the Chairperson of Ghana\u2019s Electoral Commission, said the COVID-19 took a significant toll on countries in diverse ways.
\n\u00a0
\nShe noted that the EC had to take novel steps, convincing electorates to organise credible, transparent and peaceful general election.\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no doubt daunting. It is in this light that I urge members to press forward with
\nthe singular resolve of reviving the AAEA,\u201d she said.
\n\u00a0
\nMr Fabio Bargiacchi, the Executive Director of the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES), pledged his ‘s commitment to supporting the mandate of the AAEA to promote electoral best practices on the Continent.
\n\u00a0
\nHe said the ECES was ready to support initiatives such as capacity and training to help\u00a0prevent electoral violence, support free and fair participation of women in elections.
\n\u00a0
\nMr Calixte Mbari, the Acting Director, Governance and Conflict Prevention at the Africa Union, said the activities of EMBs were crucial to the deepening of democracy on the Continent.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nHe said it was not right to blame EMBs entirely for electoral violence due to the involvement of other stakeholders in the process.\u00a0<\/div>\n
Mr Mbari urged AAEA to build a robust structure in Africa to stamp out electoral related violence through capacity building to ensure free and fair elections.<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Accra, May 12, GNA – The time is ripe for Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) in Africa to find new ways of holding elections, especially\u00a0during emergency situations. Mr Wafula Chebukati, the President of the General Assembly of the Association of Africa Election Authorities (AAAEA), said the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions and risks calls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[13315,5906,288,8377,521,13316,573],"class_list":["post-1085645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-politics","tag-africamr","tag-elections","tag-find","tag-running","tag-time","tag-wafula","tag-ways"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1085645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1085645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1085645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1085645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}