(Thursday August 25, 2016 Issue)
The
Media Agenda, through the support of the US Embassy in The Gambia, has rolled
out a sensitization exercise of about 100 journalists from the electronic and
print media, to equip them with the requisite knowledge and skills of informing
and enlightening the public of their right to vote in elections.
This
laudable move is worthy of commending as this will help greatly in putting the
general public up to speed with the nitty-gritty of especially the upcoming
elections. It will as well help the media to be able to conscientise the people
on the essence to vote and exercise their universal suffrage in the democratic
process of the country.
The
country, as speakers at the Media Agenda training course rightly stated, has
been experiencing low voter turnout over the years of the past elections. And
one of the reasons for the voter apathy is lack of adequate sensitization of
the public of their civic rights to vote in elections.
In
trying to reverse this situation, therefore, journalists and the media have a
great role to play by contributing to educating the people of their voting
right, and why such rights should be exercised in choosing those they want to
run the state of affairs in the country.
The
voter education workshop is actually in line with promoting democratic values
in the country, as well as to prevent voter apathy in the upcoming December 1
presidential polls and other local elections.
As
the US Embassy’s Charge d’Affaires said in his remarks at the commencement of
the training workshop, experiences from other sub-Saharan African countries
have shown that voter apathy is relative
to lack of adequate voter education.
Too
often people lose interest in the democratic process because “they feel their
vote doesn’t count, or because governments neglect” civic education programmes.
“We
don’t want to see voter apathy take hold in The Gambia, and what better medium
to create an enthusiastic and informed electorate than the media,” the US
Charge d’Affaires said.
The
Point as a medium that believes in the upholding of high democratic values
would, therefore, like to commend the Media Agenda and the US Embassy for the
voter education training activity being given to journalists in this country,
as the nation gets closer to the presidential election slated for 1st December
this year and the subsequent elections.
“Do
not seek to find a reason why elections are not possible. Seek to make them
possible, and they will be possible ”
Ahmed
Chalabi
