Situational Analysis:
The high level
of electoral competitiveness among parties who strive to make inroads during
elections often spark electoral violence and political intolerance in
Ghana. The electoral violence is mostly
led by the youth who are exposed to being used by politicians to perpetrate
violence.
Campaign background
Elections in
Ghana has over the years been characterised with vigorous political activities.
Political parties and their supporters are often seen crisscrossing one another
soliciting for votes. High on the hills of the scramble for power, the country
youth are seen at the center stage sparking unrest. According to the 2010
population census Ghana recorded a population of 24,658,823 with the youthful
population being almost 5million. This means Ghana as a country has a youthful
population. This youth group exude lots of energy and ambitions which are often
misused by some politicians to cause mayhem during elections. Some areas in
Ghana have experienced election-risk indicators such as defacement of posters,
physical harm, verbal harassment, intimidation, rumours, allegations and threat
of violence over the years. The campaign for conflict free elections in 2016
has been captioned “VOTE NOT FIGHT IN 2016!” This slogan has been chosen to passionately appeal to
Ghanaians to maintain peace during and after the elections in 2016.
Campaign Objectives
Our objective is to reach out to about
70% of Ghanaian youths through organizing forums or town hall meetings that
focuses on discussions on the importance of peaceful co-existence before during
and after the general elections.
Seasonality: The campaign is expected to be at its
peak the last two weeks of November to herald the general elections in
December.
Continuity/flighting : The campaign on the media would
commence at a go and would heighten throughout the electioneering period.
Creative
Constrains: since the
campaign is to appeal to the conscience of the citizens, more of the messages
would be packaged in audio and visual forms.
Reach
and frequency:
The campaign message would be run on all major media outlets continuously.
Strategy
Our Strategy is to engage opinion
leaders in the country particularly in areas identified as hotbed of political
activities or presumably volatile areas. We shall engage them through
interviews using the various media platforms and publish their thoughts and
experiences on how to sustain Ghana’s democracy by ensuring conflict free
elections in 2016. Our interview is
structured to enable Opinion Leaders, Assembly Members, Traditional and
Community Leaders give insights as to how to ensure zero conflicts in their
constituency.
Allocation: We intend to allocate money to media
houses that are mostly patronized according to their respective categories.
This means that under new media, we shall choose a virtual platform that is
largely patronized by the youth. Also under print media we shall go in for a
newspaper that has a large circulations. And with the electronic media we would
choose a TV or Radio that has large audience or viewership.
Seasonal
cost: We don’t
envisage so much cost in this campaign since the season has called for similar
campaigns and the various media houses are ever ready to boost their content
with peace related programs.
Evaluation
Drawn from strategy, critical analysis
of interviews conducted and information collected will be done to draw policies
that will be adopted to ensure conflict free elections within the
constituencies in focus.
Organizing resources to ensure plans
are executed following keenly the draft policy made from insights collated from
the Opinion and community leaders. Implementation will take the form of the
following:
1. Organizing forums in line with insights
at town hall meetings to discuss common issues of national importance and
individual contribution to maintaining law and order in his/her locality and
the nation at large.
2. Education and sensitization of targeted
Citizen Groups ( youths) on the importance maintaining a peaceful atmosphere
before, during and after the elections
3. Publicity (hanging of banners at
vantage locations & sensitization periodically.
4. Using social media platforms to raise
issues and encourage discussions
5. One on One engagement and Radio
sensitization.
6. Organizing a peace concert at volatile
areas, capturing from TV stations and projecting voting as it is been done
across the nation on a real time basis.
CONCLUSION
It is our belief that, with your
supports, the necessary funds and training together with corresponding
logistics, our dreams of contributing to the sustainability and enhancements of
the current peace enjoyed in Ghana would be realized before, during and after
the upcoming general elections.
