The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), according to a citinewsroom.com report, has reassured Ghanaians of its neutral and limited role in the upcoming December 7 general elections. The assurance was in response to concerns raised by some stakeholders about potential military deployment to polling stations.
Clarifying the military’s position, the story continued, GAF emphasised that soldiers will not be stationed at polling stations during the elections. Instead, their involvement will be strictly in support of the police and only when requested.
Speaking during an engagement between the Election Security Taskforce and the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Brigadier General Kweku Dankwa Hagan, head of Operations, Training and Peacekeeping at the Armed Forces headquarters, reiterated the military’s commitment to ensuring peace and order.
“We are mindful of the fact that some section of the population is apprehensive of military personnel taking part in the election. I want to clarify that the election is primarily being handled by the Ghana Police Service and other Security Services under the Ministry of Interior. They are the people you will be seeing at over 40,000 polling stations. You will not see military personnel like me at a polling station.
“So please be rest assured that we shall not be there. However, we have identified with the police service and the Electoral Commission about more than 1,000 flashpoints and possible hostile areas, and we are going to have personnel there. We will not intervene in anything until the police has a request or asks us to assist,” Brigadier General Kweku Dankwa Hagan was quoted as saying.
It is undisputable fact that a section of Ghanaians are indeed against the deployment of soldiers to polling stations on December 7 elections. The Opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in particular had stated in several fora that they would not accept military deployment and that they are prepared to sacrifice their lives to protect the ballot box, should the military be used as the conduit to rig the elections.
How the military can be used to rig an election for the ruling party is a serious question the NDC themselves can answer. Our concerns, however, are the threats they have issued, which have the potential to affect the peace and stability of our nation. Ghana has so far conducted eight presidential and parliamentary elections under the Fourth Republic. However, this year’s elections appear to be extra-ordinary one as the stakes are very high.
As a result of this, any little spark, like misinformation and disinformation, can plunge the country into total chaos, which all stakeholders must strive to avoid. It is upon the basis of this that, The Chronicle is congratulating the GAF for coming out publicly to state that they have no active role to play in this year’s election, unless they are invited by the police.
We believe the public pronouncement will settle once and for all, the perception that the military will be deployed to harass voters on December 7. But as the senior military officer himself pointed out, the announcement does not hundred percent mean that the military will be completely alienated from playing any role in the elections. If the police are overwhelmed, they will definitely fall on the military for support.
The Chronicle is, therefore, advising members of the general public to comport themselves before, during and after the elections so that there will be no need for the police to fall on them (military) for assistance in case they are overwhelmed.
We believe that the police are capable of handling the security situation judging from the way they have started engaging relevant stakeholders and drumming home the need to observe peace during the elections. But we cannot at the same time, gloss over the fact that in every society, there are miscreants who will try to go against the norm. When such miscreants are being dealt with, is should not be misconstrued to mean that somebody is trying to rig the elections.
