Rev. Dr. Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, the Chairman of National Peace Council (NPC), has urged the Ghanaian electorate, especially stakeholders, to help in the resolve to ensure Peace and Stability towards Elections 2024.
According to him, our collective resolve in organizing Stakeholders forums contribute to reducing tension towards peace and stability of the country after the 2020 elections.
He noted that democracy across the globe is under attack to the extent that the champions of democracy, like the United States, have not been spared.
He said election in a democratic environment is accepted as the mechanism for choosing leaders for states, but has now become the ground for conflicts and violent destruction of lives and property, and that in some countries within our sub-region the conduct of elections has led to crimes against humanity, such as genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Speaking at a Stakeholders Forum to promote Peaceful 2024 General Elections, Rev. Dr. Adu-Gyamfi said even though the 2020 General elections were generally peaceful, the nation experienced pockets of unrests, reckless utterances and hate speech as well as violent destructions of lives and property.
He noted that the Peace Council believes that under no circumstance should elections lead to the death of any person.
He disclosed that to move beyond their collective pain to a place of healing, the Council engaged stakeholders in five constituencies, including Awutu-Senya, Odododiodio, Ablekuma Central, Techiman South and Savelugu, where loss of lives occurred.
He said the lessons and recommendations from those engagements serve as building blocks for a three-day national conference that took place in 2021.
He said the National Conference developed a roadmap that sought to counter election violence and strengthen processes to build greater cohesion, political tolerance and nation-building, adding that one of the recommendations from the national conference was to institute a platform for Inter Party Dialogues for regular consensus building.
The Peace Council has since January 2022 instituted and facilitated such a platform where all the political parties meet to discuss issues of national interest.
The Chairman of the National Peace Council stressed that, as a country, we have a choice to make in the coming elections, a choice between peace and progress, or violence and retrogression, and urged Ghanaians to choose peace and progress as against violence and retrogression.
H.E. Leonardo Santos Simao, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) commended the National Peace Council for organizing the forum, to ensure the democratic and sustainable peace and security before, during and after the 2024 general elections.
According to him, the forum would enhance building of trust in the elections, which he said is the principal objective of the entrenching democracy in West Africa.
He noted that peace and sustainability in the West African sub-region is being put to the test and hoped the participants at the forum would uphold Ghana’s democratic culture in their own respective capacities.
He noted that the inclusion of political parties and security agencies, as well as other stakeholders, is a sign of trust and willingness to engage in a constructive dialogue to ensure safety before, during and after the elections, since their efforts are crucial in maintaining the integrity of the process of peace building.
