Justice needed for peaceful elections

There have been several messages and calls for peace in this year’s election since the beginning of the year.

Although some people think we have become too fixated with peace, as a nation our position has always been that we cannot have too much peace, so we lose nothing  if we keep reminding ourselves that we need peace before, during and after the December 7 elections.

Ghana has successfully held six consecutive elections and even though we have pulled through all of them, there have been pockets of violence, while we have virtually sat on tenterhooks during some of the elections.

The calls for peace have become incessant because many people believe, and rightly so, that we do not have to take the peace we currently enjoy for granted and that we must not assume that because we have been able to successfully hold elections in the past, we would automatically have an incident-free election on December 7.

We are not prophets of doom but we agree with the people who hold the view that we must not live on assumptions or past glories.

Indeed, we need to tackle each election differently and on its own merit and that is why we need to spread the message of peace and ask everyone to remain tolerant throughout the period so as not to foment trouble or be party to any form of violence.

What most of us, however, have continually lost sight of in our calls for peace is the element of justice, which is a prerequisite for peaceful elections.

It is against this backdrop that we find the call of the Amakomhene, Nana Adu Mensah Asare, on the Electoral Commission (EC) to play the role of a fair referee in the December 7 elections as not only timely, but hitting the nail squarely on the head.

He rightly stated that “for peace to prevail in the country and the people to accept the outcome of the election, the EC must be seen as an unbiased and fair referee.”

Indeed, the Daily Graphic holds the same view as the Amakomhene, that there cannot be peace without justice, and for justice to triumph “the EC must treat all political parties equally and fairly.”

The recent event involving the EC’s disqualification of 12 presidential aspirants from taking part in this year’s presidential election has strongly brought up the issue of fairness by the EC and many political watchers have asked if the EC would have meted the same treatment to either of the two leading political parties – the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), if they had also been found wanting in respect of the submission of their nomination forms.

While we do not begrudge the political parties and disqualified candidates who have taken the matter to court because they believe that the EC has not treated them fairly, we believe that resorting to dialogue is the best way to go.

The Daily Graphic believes that with dialogue, there would be no animosity between the parties because they are bound to reach an amicable settlement after the dialogue.

Meanwhile, it is the considered opinion of the Daily Graphic that the EC has been selective in exercising its powers when it comes to the Political Parties Law.

Ghanaians cannot contest the fact that majority of the political parties, if not all, do not have physical presence in two-thirds of the districts in the country.

That notwithstanding, the EC has for reasons best known to it, turned a blind eye.

We have another issue and that relates to the security agencies. They are quick to deal with elements in the opposition political parties who breach the law but are slow to call activists of the ruling power to order.

Rule of law works only when everybody is equal before the law.

The Daily Graphic believes that the December polls offer Ghanaians another opportunity to demonstrate to the whole world that Ghana is truly the beacon of democratic governance and that is why we must play by the rules and not create the impression that anybody is above the law.