Let’s make a solemn pledge to think Ghana

It is just 20 days to the elections but there appears to be so much suspicion in the air because the election processes and some technicalities that need to be explained to the public are still very unclear to many.

The usual commercials (remember Kofi Mensah in the last election) that are aired prior to all our elections are conspicuously missing on our airwaves, hence the uncertainty that has gripped many, although it is now established that Ghana will go to the polls on December 7, 2016.

We should not take it for granted that this is not the first time that Ghana is going to the polls and so everyone must be very familiar with the processes.

While four years is not exactly a short period to keep certain things in one’s memory, there are always new voters in every election – those who have now attained the qualification age of 18 and those who, for some reasons, have freshly registered.

We believe that the Electoral Commission (EC) should constantly remind the public of their roles and what is at stake in an election, instead of only reacting to issues when they are brought up by the public.

That is why platforms such as the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) have been created  to ensure smooth information flow, aside from the media’s role of facilitating information flow from bodies such as the EC to the public.

Limited information flow notwithstanding, the Daily Graphic, once again, calls on all Ghanaians to resolve to play their part to ensure free, fair and successful elections.

We urge all the stakeholders to make an honest pledge that, win or lose, we all have a role to play in nation building. Such an attitude, we believe, will inure to the benefit of all Ghanaians and the nation at large.

The Daily Graphic believes that one of the reasons for the desire of all the presidential candidates to win the Presidency at all cost is that the President seems to have too much power.

But no one person can build the nation, and that is why there have been several discussions concerning the winner-takes-all system currently at play in our governance system.

 President John Mahama has said on his campaign trail that he and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will accept the final results as declared by the EC at the end of the elections and so every political party should do likewise and we believe that should be everybody’s resolve, even before we get there.

Indeed, if there is any lesson that Ghana should learn from the election in the United States on November 8, it is the fact that although the presidential candidate of the Democrats, Mrs Hillary Rodham Clinton, and her supporters were heartbroken when the final results were released, they have accepted the results and congratulated the victor and President-elect, Mr Donald John Trump.

We are not oblivious of the protests by especially the youth, but the bottom line is that it is an established fact that Mr Trump is the next President of the United States and that he will be sworn in as the 45th President on January 20, 2017.

Ghanaian voters must brace themselves up for the outcome of the December 7 elections, no matter who the victor will be.

After all, Ghana will be the winner at the end of the day.