Will there be an incident-free elections on Dec 7?

By Dr. Paul Herzuah

With less than 50 days for Ghanaians to go to the polls to elect the next president of the republic and 275 parliamentarians, the political temperature is increasing whilst electoral activities are reaching dizzying heights. Political parties are stepping up their campaigns with all kinds of pre-election strategies to woo the electorate for votes. Sound systems mounted on pickup trucks blasting party music and defying acceptable decibles of noise level are common. The campaign trails are busy. Convoys of presidential candidates engaging with party supporters in every nook and cranny of the country is now a common spectacle.

Frenzied party supporters

Frenzied party supporters in all kinds of fashionable party ‘T’ shirts dancing to popular party songs are seen everywhere. Tens of thousands of political posters and thousands of billboards advertising aspiring presidential and parliamentary candidates are splashed everywhere in Ghana now. The familiar political adverts in the media (broadcast, print and social media) is gaining momentum. Yes, the political electioneering campaign is in overdrive and at the centre of all this are the two biggest political parties (NPP, NDC) throwing in their best strategies and not discounting the efforts of smaller political parties and independent candidates. Whilst these pre-election maneuvers by the political parties spice up the electoral process before elections, the most significant and crucial aspect of any electoral process is keeping the peace before, during and after elections. Since 1992, Ghana has successfully gone through eight (8) presidential and parliamentary elections which can be described as largely successful without any serious incidents. Yes, it is true that in past elections, there have been several election-related incidents ranging from minor issues such as clashes between party supporters during campaign to multiple voting, snatching of ballot boxes during voting and serious incidents such as deaths of members of some political party members as happened in the last elections.

In all of this, it is important to establish the causes of these infractions and disturbances that trigger such unfortunate incidents during elections. Much as I admit that we may never have a complete incident-free elections given the diversity of our culture and individual differences in character traits, it is very possible to have a largely peaceful elections if major players in the electoral process deliver on their mandate. Ensuring a peaceful, incident-free elections is a collective responsibility of all citizens of this country from individuals, to political parties , state institutions, organs of government (executive, judiciary, legislature) EC, NCCE, the security services, civil society organizations and the like to safeguard an incident-free elections.

Rhetoric of presidential candidates and party apparatchiks

Leaders of political parties have strong influence over the mindset of their followers most of whom have developed blind loyalties to their leaders and parties to the extent that whatever such leaders tell their supporters the latter execute it without blinking. A classic example is what Trump told his supporters in a post-election speech to march and storm the Capitol as congress was certifying the results of the 2020 US presidential elections. What did we see? An instant response by his supporters which nearly resulted in toppling the democratic values of the United States but for the alertness of the security services. In Ghana, we have seen instances where some presidential candidates have urged their supporters to be ‘vigilant’ during counting of ballot papers, a call which sometimes go wrong because the supporters do other nasty things which the leaders have no control over. My plea to all presidential candidates and party apparatchiks is this: ‘ Do not allow your desperation for power lead you to make unguarded statements to your supporters which could lead to turmoil and unnecessary clashes thereby putting the entire elections into jeopardy come December 7.’

Neutrality of the EC

The conduct or misconduct of the Electoral Commission of Ghana is extremely crucial in determining a peaceful election or otherwise. As the referee in the entire electoral process, the EC is expected to stay neutral and should not in any way be seen as favouring a particular political party or running down some other parties. Once the ECs neutrality is questioned, issues of trust emerge and can be a recipe for chaos. It is for this reason that we need to pat the EC on the back for navigating us out of potential trouble when some political parties alleged illegal voter transfer during the recent national voters register. The ECs recent engagement with political parties to address creeping electoral issues at the IPAC meeting is therefore highly commendable. The greater challenge lies ahead in the lead up to December 7and so the EC must rise up to the challenge and ensure a level playing field for all. This is one sure way of minimizing any incident of election-related incidents come December 7.

Professionalism of the Security Services

If the upcoming December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections will remain incident-free then a great deal of responsibility hinges on the professional conduct of our security services particularly the police, immigration, fire service and the Ghana Prison Service. If recent policing by the Ghana police Service, we witnessed during protests in the country is anything to go by then it gives me hope that the police and the other security services will be up to the task in ensuring orderliness during the elections but I must state emphatically that given the crucial nature of the upcoming elections, the task for the Police to ensure the peace of the nation could be daunting and so the hierarchy of the service would have to delve deep to execute their mandate in ensuring a peaceful elections. One way of executing this is for the police to publish list of past and present electoral flashpoints and engage opinion leaders and other key stakeholders in such communities to iron out differences in order to ensure that the electorate cast their ballots in peace during and after the elections. The police should also engage the leadership of political parties in these flashpoints more frequently for broader consultations on electoral issues and the need to keep the peace before during and after the elections. Anything apart from this could bring more trouble to such communities.

A non-partisan media

The Ghanaian media per their professional guidelines owe it a duty to uphold their core journalistic principles which include always reporting the truth; upholding the public interest and the right of the public to be informed; ensuring balanced reportage and maintaining neutrality in the discharge of their mandate. These, among others, are the sacred duty of Ghanaian Journalists. On the back of this, the Ghanaian media should be wary of any moves that would result in misinformation or disinformation or any act that would not contravene the principle of placing accuracy above speed as enshrined in the GJA code of ethics. The upcoming election is so crucial that we need our media to play their role dutifully and abide by their own guided professional principles as enshrined in the GJA code of ethics. Also, in this election, the Ghanaian media should refrain from setting any biased agenda that seek to unduly influence the Ghanaian public in favour of some political parties over others. The bitter truth is that this practice, regrettably, is quite prevalent within the media fraternity today but I entreat media practitioners to be very professional in discharging their mandate regardless of the political affiliation of the media owners they work for. This is the least they can do to hold the peace of the nation during the elections. We need to see a wholesome, peaceful and functional Ghana regardless of the outcome of the December 7 polls.

The writer is a political and media communications expert, and a lecturer at the Faculty of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Media, Arts and Communication (UniMAC).