Peace should reign on Saturday

This Saturday, more than 18 million voters are expected to visit 40,976 polling stations in 276 constituencies across the country to exercise their electoral franchise.

They will do so to elect a President and parliamentarians who will take up the reins of the country for the next four years.

It will be the ninth time the country will be going to the polls to allow the citizens to exercise their democratic right in universal adult suffrage to elect their leaders to represent them in parliament and at the seat of government.

Normally, the voting exercise should pass smoothly without any challenges or worries over upheavals and violence that can lead to varying degrees of injury and fatalities.

However, transitioning from a period characterised by dictatorships, which disrupted four republican constitutions, elections in the Fourth Republic have been approached with tact and an unflagging attitude by all stakeholders.

While political parties employ all sorts of techniques to gain an advantage over others, sometimes through covert and overt means, the electorate plays along, leading to mistrust which translates into hard lines that result in chaotic scenes.

Past elections in the Fourth Republic have been largely peaceful but they never passed without pockets of violence, incidents of snatching or attempted snatching of ballot boxes, maiming of citizens and deaths.  

Going into this twin elections, as has been the practice since 1992, all stakeholders have been drumming home the need to maintain the peace before, during and after the elections.

Well-meaning segments of society, including religious groups, civil society, academia, think tanks, centres of excellence and even the political parties, have drummed home the need to maintain peace during this period. 

The issue of peace is so important because the ravages of war and conflicts arising out of elections abound in Africa, particularly West, Eastern and Central Africa. But Ghana has become the beacon of peace and poster boy for good democracy in the region, the more reason this achievement should be protected and deepened.

It is the fervent hope of the Daily Graphic that Saturday’s elections, regardless of the high stakes, will come off very peacefully.

However, the paper advises that achieving total peace should not be taken for granted; it should be intentionally engineered through complete tolerance and fact-checking before making demands or sounding alarms, as well as eschewing the dissemination of fake and related news that can spark anxiety, violence and provocations.

Voters must patiently join queues and go through the process gently to exercise their choices and thereafter return to their normal duties outside the polling centres and not indulge in any form of provocations or exercising rights beyond their limits; your right ends where somebody’s begins.

The paper also urges the Election Security Task Force to walk the talk by not sparing any person found in breach of the laws governing elections and the criminal code. We believe the quick actions from the police and other members of the task force would set good examples to give confidence to the electorate and stamp out any tendencies for fomenting trouble.

It is worth repeating that Ghana is the only country we have and we cannot burn it and become citizens of another country. It is in our interest to deepen the development and progress of our country and passing another democratic test will be a feather in everybody’s cap.

The Daily Graphic wishes all Ghanaians well in the run-up to Saturday’s elections and urges every electorate to step out boldly and in their numbers to cast their votes to elect a leader of their choice.

It is opportune to heed the renowned philosopher, Plato’s, caution that: “Bad governments are elected by good citizens who don't vote”. We cannot also forget the admonition of Martin Luther Jnr, “Vote like your rights depend on it, as your vote is your voice.”

Fellow Ghanaians, let your voices be sonorous on Saturday as the Daily Graphic wishes you a peaceful Election 2024.