[ 2016-11-25 ]

Parties, stakeholders pledge commitment to peace
Representatives of political parties and other
stakeholders in a Town Hall Meeting in Accra have
pledged their commitment to foster peace before,
during and after the December 2016 general
election.

The other stakeholders in the meeting held last
Monday night at the Institute of African Studies
(IAS) of the University of Ghana, Legon were
religious representatives, civil society
organisations, the security agencies and students
from the University of Ghana, Legon and the
Islamic University.

Carrying placards, they pledged to safeguard the
current peace the country was enjoying before,
during and after the general election.

They urged all Ghanaians, especially politicians
and those seeking the mandate of the electorate,
to pledge and assure all that they stood for peace
and that they would not do anything to mar the
achievement of the country in the area of
democracy.

They, however, urged the election management body
to be fair, credible, truthful, transparent and
consistent in the conduct of the election.

The meeting was on the theme, “Making Ghana’s
2016 election peaceful – The role of
stakeholders” and organised by the Media
Foundation for West Africa.

It was addressed by representatives from the
Electoral Commission, the National Commission for
Civic Education, the Ghana Police Service,
Representatives from the National Chief Imam and
the Christian community.

Pledge for peace

Leading the pledge for peace, the New Patriotic
Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for Ayawaso
West Wuogon, Mr Emmanuel Kyeremateng Agyarko,
pledged to ensure that there would be no violence
whatsoever, saying, “There will be nothing that
will disturb the peace in this constituency.”

“I promise on my honour as a Ghanaian, that if
there is problem in the Ayawaso West Wuogon, take
it from me, I give my word on my life and on the
life of my children that it won’t come from me.

“I will not, I state again, I will not start any
trouble, I will not start a fight. I pray that
nobody, no other political party would like to
start a fight,” he pledged.

He said even though he pledged to play by the
rules, “I will not allow my hands to be tied and
beaten.”

Electoral Commission as a referee

Mr Agyarko urged the Electoral Commission (EC) to
play its role as the referee, saying, “I hope
and pray that before the election, during the
election and after the election, the one that
stands in the middle, the Electoral Commissioner,
will be fair, will be truthful, will be consistent
and will be transparent.

“I can speak for my political party, the NPP. I
say without provocation, we don’t want the EC to
wear our jersey. We don’t want them to be number
12 of our football team. In the same way, we
don’t want the EC to be the number 12 of any
political party,” he said.

For her part, the Second Vice Chairman of the
Convention People’s Party (CPP), Madam Susan Adu
Amankwa, pledged that the CPP shall definitely not
be the one to start the fight, to intimidate
people or engage in any uncivilised act.

“We pledge peace before, during and after the
election, and we pledge that we shall ensure that
our members abide by all the rules and regulations
governing this country. We pray that everybody
else does the same,” she said.

Root cause of tension

A former Commissioner of the Commission on Human
Rights and Administrative Justice, Justice Emile
Short, noted that every election year, Ghanaians
would always pray and hope for peace, but
expressed concern that nothing was done to address
the root cause of the issue.

He explained that the root cause of the tension
that was generated in every election was the kind
of governance system the country practised, where
the winning party took control of everything,
excluding the losing parties from everything.

He cited situations in Kenya and Ivory Coast as
things that could equally happen in Ghana and,
therefore, advised Ghanaians not to take the peace
the country was enjoying for granted.

Sudan experience

The President of the Association for Media
Development in South Sudan who spoke on the topic,
“The impact of conflict on the society, the
South Sudan experience”, Mr Alfred L. Taban,
cautioned Ghana to desist from toeing tribal lines
as that was the major cause of the genocide in
Sudan.

He also singled out corruption as a potential
cause of conflict, which also played a significant
role in the conflict in South Sudan resulting in
the killing of thousands of people in that
country.

Source - Graphiconline

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