Chapter 8 some Accra-based radio stations like Radio Gold and Joy FM declared John Evans Atta Mills the next president of Ghana before the official declaration by the EC(Boyefio, 2008). Additionally, the mere presence of election observers – especially those from ECOWAS, AU and EU – has in itself also helped to deter overt acts of electoral fraud, violence, chicanery and corruption during elections. In fact, the presence of these observer groups puts pressure on political parties to behave according to electoral rules and standards in order not to be reported or tagged as violent parties. Such a tag has far-reaching, negative implications for their international reputation. Perhaps this explains why most domestic observers are sometimes threatened and prevented from entering certain polling centres, often the strongholds or so called'World Bank' of parties by political party thugs. Furthermore, local observers have also provided early warning signals and other relevant information to the appropriate state institutions about potential crises or conflicts for preventive action to be initiated. A perfect example is the election violence monitoring project of CODEO at KAIPTC. This project has to a large extent reduced the occurrence of violent acts and prompted the intervention of other election stakeholders such as the security agencies and the National Peace Council(NPC) to foster peace and security in the country. Challenges and Some Emerging Issues First, financial constraints appear to be one major challenge affecting both domestic and external observer groups. Domestic observers in particular depend heavily or almost completely on external donor funding and support to carry out their activities 262