| It is the will of the people for the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) to meet more, as well as key people in a bid to ensure peace and harmony persists even as National Elections,Jerseys NFL China, slated for next year,Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale, draw near.This disclosure was made recently by ERC Chairman Bishop Juan Edghill. He stated that politicians and the media fraternity are among the key people that have been earmarked. As such, he revealed that the ERC will be rolling out programmes in this regard in the very near future.He recounted that such engagements were held in 2006 as part of the lead-up to elections.“We would have held a media encounter then; we had engagements with all of the owners of the various media houses, the journalists and the cameramen. It was a roundtable discussion where the media looked at what they can do to improve. I recall that it was talk show hosts who made the decision that they would not take in live calls during the period when election results were being declared. It was the media that acted responsibly…we merely facilitated.”In the lead-up to the 2006 elections, too, the ERC had sent out packages to all of the candidates on the Representation of the People’s Act, the Racial Hostility Act, as a well as a legal brief of what is allowed or not allowed during the pre-election period. Guidelines were also provided to candidates to ensure that campaigning activities were focused on issues and not along racial views.“We were able to accomplish that and I think that we will have to do some other engagements in that regard,” Edghill noted.Elections monitoring on the other hand, he revealed, will be an exercise that will see the ERC scrutinising content presented by each individual political party. The ERC, Edghill said,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, has a role under the Representation of the People’s Act to closely monitor the elections tactics utilised by parties.He explained that should the ERC uncover that a candidate would have used race or religion as the means of winning votes or to divide a community,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, there are penalties that can be instituted.“The Representation of the People’s Act says that once the ERC is satisfied and has gone through due process we can inform the Chairman of the Elections Commission of our findings and that means even though a candidate would have won the most votes they cannot be declared the winner,” Edghill asserted.In 2006, the ERC had had discussions with the Director of Public Prosecutions,China Jerseys NFL Wholesale, and had taken a caveat from same, which was intended to empower the ERC to prosecute,Cheap Jerseys China, using its own prosecutors under the Racial Hostility Act. This, Edghill said, could have seen the ERC filing criminal charges against people who incite or excite racism against one group.Edghill emphasised that in order for such measures to be enforced, efforts will have to be made by the Commission to monitor every programme presented by every medium, be it television, radio or print.“Like we did in 2006 we will have to have monitors who tape the speeches across the length and breadth of all the political rallies. We did it in the past so we would have to do it better in 2011.”The setting up of hotlines is another measure which is expected to enhance the efforts of the ERC, Edghill said, to help sensitise communities to report certain developments to the Commission.It is expected that the monitoring process will commence early next year. |
