With barely five weeks into the crucial December 7 general elections, the responsibility on all Ghanaians to work at ensuring peaceful elections becomes very imperative, with Ghana as the Star of Africa and a leading investment and business destination in the world.
From the politician and institutions of governance, through the Electoral Commission and security agencies to civil society, religious and traditional stakeholders and the media, we all owe ourselves and succeeding generations a duty to sustain our democratic culture.
Since 1992 through 1996 into 2000, the world had seen us survive it, when the odds were heavy and an implosion almost natural.
As we would recall, in almost all of these circumstances, our religious bodies and traditional rulers were at their best, applying diplomacy and holding out like a Colossus without any winds of anarchy.
2012 Election Petition
Again in 2012, after surviving the 2000 turbulence, we got to the brink, as the world waited with bated breath and the Election Petition proceedings unfolded, culminating in a bitter-sweet verdict that, notwithstanding, changed the face of elections management in Ghana for good.
With the quiet revolution within the corridors of the Electoral Commission combining with structural reforms, which clips any long hands of any incumbent President, we were again back to another elevated pedestal to roll out credible elections, despite the games the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) played with the constitutional body in charge of managing elections in the country.
COVID-19 strains
As we were yet to experience the uncertainties, the COVID-19 pandemic nearly posed a threat to efforts at living out the Supreme Court’s prescriptions to holding credible elections in the country.
For those who saw in the pandemic a threat, the way out was freeze and hope that the existing register could provide some blank hope. Time, they argued, could not be on the side of the Commission to execute that constitutional mandate of getting the nation a more credible electoral roll. The Commission, however, proved it could improvise at all levels to roll out the elections.
From logistical, training and registration through coordination and crafting of ground structures in all constituencies and polling stations, the EC proved it was on top of issues.
Rottweilers
Of course, the Rottweilers, who were prepared to pop up at every level to mar the noble attempt at rolling out the 2020 elections, because they appear out of favour with the electorate, kept piling up the obstacles till it reached vigilante proportions, compelling the security agencies to apply a big boot that left the ‘criminal politician’ with zero options except to construct anarchy.
All these were preceded by an event portending unmistakable evil in the form of leaked audio that dropped names of top state officials, who were not only to be smeared, but also possibly attacked.
With a section of the National Democratic Congress goons and their communications team engaging in barbarian propaganda games and campaign methods, they hoped they could wear down the government with their lies and threats.
Peace is paramount to all
For those teeming numbers of ordinary citizens, including hundreds of thousands of nurses and teachers, peace is non-negotiable in the coming days – before, during and after the elections.
Members of the NDC themselves know that they would need a peaceful Ghana to get back to power, if their party does not disintegrate after 2020.
That is why we join the call on the part of the Executive to all traditional and religious bodies to be part of the campaign towards peaceful elections on December 7.
More particularly, we would urge the police, as arbiters in the crucial matters of law and order, to go full throttle in stamping their authority, should the political Rottweilers attempt their acts of stupidity in the coming days.
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