‘Blame NDC, NPP for violence during limited registration’
The Chairman of the National Peace Council, Professor Emmanuel Asante, has said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) should be held responsible for the acts of violence which occurred during the just-ended limited voters registration exercise.
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He said political parties had to focus on national and civilised politics and be bold to admit and condemn wrongs irrespective of the political party involved.
Prof. Asante said it was about time political parties, particularly the NDC and the NPP, stopped the blame game, admitted their mistakes and corrected them to safeguard the peace the country was currently enjoying.
“The more they play the blame game, the more they incite their supporters to become violent,” he said, and called on the leaders of the political parties to publicly declare what actions and reaction the respective parties would not support to ensure that supporters refrained from such acts.
Sharing his thoughts on recent political developments, the forthcoming November 7 election and the limited voters registration exercise in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, Prof. Asante said the leadership of the political parties, particularly the NDC and the NPP, had a greater responsibility to maintain peace now, during and after the polls.
He also said they could do that by eschewing actions that would create an enabling environment and condition for violence.
Avoid gifts
Prof. Asante urged the public, especially the youth, to avoid accepting gifts, adding that those gifts from political party leaders and sympathisers were used to entice them to do wrong against a party, in the leaders’ quest to win power.
“Do not allow anybody to use you as instruments of violence, no matter how attractive a package may look. The general public, including the instruments for violence, are likely to suffer more than political party leaders who incite such violence and, therefore, we must be determined to safeguard our own peace by safeguarding the peace of Ghana,” he said
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Prof. Asante called on the police not to relent in their decision to “crush” vigilante groups and described their activities as criminal and a threat to national security.
Nation first
Prof. Asante urged the leaders of political parties to put the national interest first in their quest to win political power.
“If political parties deliberately push the names of people not eligible to vote, including minors and foreigners, into the voters register just because they want the votes to win power, they must be aware that they are creating conditions and an enabling environment for violence,” he added.
Some of the registration forms scattered after attack at the centres
Limited voters’ registration
Concerning some university students who were not given the opportunity to register in the just-ended limited registration exercise, Prof. Asante pleaded with the Electoral Commission (EC) to do a critical evaluation of the whole exercise, consider the university campuses and extend the exercise to allow the students to register.
He was quick to add that he was not calling for a general extension because reports had shown that most people kept procrastinating until the 10-day exercise closed. Such people, he said, were to blame for their inability to register and, therefore, did not deserve a second chance.
However, he said the case of the university students was peculiar because universities were in session and they were writing their exams and, therefore, keeping the students in long queues for hours was not feasible.
“Waiting for long hours because of inadequate registration centres and resources on the university campuses was definitely an inconvenience for the students, particularly because they were writing their exams,” he said.
Prof. Asante was of the view that most of the students had been disenfranchised due to no fault of theirs and, therefore, should be given the opportunity to register.
He was of the belief that the EC and the security agencies had learnt the necessary lessons the limited voters’ registration exercise had presented and was optimistic that with those lessons, the EC and the security services would be able to manage the November 7 polls peacefully and avoid all triggers of violence.
Concerning the role of other key stakeholders, Prof. Asante said the security services should be professional in their duties regardless of the political party they belonged to because they were only to work in the interest of Ghana.
Supreme Court ruling
Concerning the Supreme Court ruling, Prof. Asante said the Judiciary had just strengthened a recommendation that was made by the five-member eminent committee put together by the EC to propose recommendations for the amendment of C.I.72.
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He said according to the recommendations, exhibiting the register alone as was done in the past would not be enough to clean the register adequately and, therefore, the EC was asked to put in place extra cleaning mechanisms that would run simultaneously with the exhibition exercise.
Prof. Asante said the recommendation was made because all the political parties and the stakeholders that were represented at the forum on the C.I 72 amendment proposals agreed that the register was bloated due to the registration of minors and alleged foreigners, double registration and deceased persons whose names were still in the register.
He expressed the hope that the EC would live up to the court’s ruling to ensure that the right things were done to clean the voters register.
He agreed that there could be no perfect voters register anywhere, but added that there should be a certain threshold that Ghanaians would testify that efforts had been made.
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“I would urge the EC to inform the public adequately on what the commission was doing to clean the register because lack of such information results in rumours and agitation,” he said.
Such rumours and agitation were not good for the political season and could be triggers of violence.
“It is not enough for the EC to say the commission has met with the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC). This is because not all Ghanaians are represented on the IPAC. Therefore, the EC must find other platforms to give a detailed account of what it is doing to clean the voters register to the public,” he added.
Message to Ghanaians
“My message to Ghanaians is: What country or Ghana are we yearning for? The election is about Ghana and its development and not about any political party and, therefore, we must do all we can to ensure that Ghana, our motherland and the only country we have, does not suffer as a result of our political actions and reactions at the election,” he said.
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That would only happen if all stakeholders play their role to ensure a flawless election and safeguard the peace the country is enjoying now, during and after the election.
Writer’s email doreen.andoh@graphic.com.gh