Tomorrow is voting day – Make sure you vote

In 24 hours the moment we have all been waiting for will be here — the time for all Ghanaians to perform their civic duty of going to the polls to cast their ballots.

The Daily Graphic urges all the about 15 million registered voters to make it a point to be at the polls, come what may, to cast their ballots.

Those who will be travelling to their constituencies to vote must set off early, either by bus or by air, if that is preferred, to perform that civic responsibility.

We, however, urge the electorate to vote wisely according to their circumstances or conditions and what they look out for in the next President and parliamentarians.

We started this journey with the submission of signed forms by 17 people aspiring to accede to the Presidency. After the initial submission of forms, only four sailed through, while 13 were disqualified by the Electoral Commission (EC).

Suits filed by the disqualified aspirants at the courts led to the approval of three more by the EC and a second disqualification of the others, bringing the number of candidates contesting the Presidency to seven.

All the seven candidates have done their bit criss-crossing the country to sell their manifestoes to the electorate and also canvass for votes.

After the euphoria, the two major political parties — the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) — ended their campaigns in Accra last Sunday and yesterday, respectively.

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP), the People’s National Convention (PNC) and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) also concluded their campaigns yesterday.

It is now the turn of the electorate who have listened to all the presidential candidates to make their decision on who they will vote for tomorrow and we urge all registered voters not to abstain from the polls, for whatever the outcome, it will affect everyone.

The Daily Graphic, therefore, urges all Ghanaians registered to vote to go early to their designated polling centres and cast their ballots peacefully on Election Day and only return at the close of the polls if they want to witness the counting of the ballots.

We all need to condition our minds to accept the outcome of the polls that will be declared by the EC and move on as a nation towards development and prosperity.

We should all stick together as one big family once the polls are over and the winners have been declared, but we also urge whichever party or candidate who wins not to continue on that path of winner-takes-all that has become the nemesis of our governance system.

Just as wisdom does not reside with one person, so can we not say that any one political party has all the men and women who can move this country forward and make it great.

We ask the winner to be declared by the EC to extend a hand to other well-meaning Ghanaians with affiliation to other political parties but who have something to contribute to nation building. We also urge such people who will be invited to put off their party garb and don the flag of Ghana for our development.

As a former United Nations Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, admonished all Ghanaians last Thursday, “Whichever candidate or party you choose, make sure you vote for Ghana.”