CDD expresses concern over lack of justice for election victims

The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) has expressed worry at the apparent slow process in serving justice to victims of election violence in all previous eight elections under the Fourth Republic.

It said justice for most victims was yet to be served despite persistent calls from various organisations and the public for the nation’s justice delivery institutions to speed up processes and provide regular information to the public on the status of such cases.

The organisation mentioned the 2020 and 2024 general elections which it said saw little action in finding justice for victims who sustained varying degrees of injury and those who died in the incidents.

Event

The Programmes Manager, Security Sector Governance of CDD, Nana Kwabena  Aborampah, who was addressing the press on electoral violence cases in Accra last Wednesday, said dragging of feet in such matters went to corroborate citizens’ perception that perpetrators of electoral violence always went unpunished.

That notwithstanding, the CDD said it would continue to collaborate with the West African Network for Peace Building (WANEP), the Coalition of Democratic Observers (CODEO) and all CSOs to seek justice for the victims.

As has always been the practice, the CDD is following up on the violent cases, including those recorded at the just-ended elections to validate and confirm all 76 incidents, including destruction and seizures.

A Review Desk has been created to investigate the 13 disturbances, nine reported cases of deaths and 46 injuries in the 2020 elections.

Already, the Ghana Police Service has arrested 132 suspects, 45 of them are on remand, 71 others are on police inquiry bail and 16 are on court bail in this year’s elections.

Security accountability

Mr Aborampah said to support the process of seeking justice for electoral violence victims, the CDD, WANEP, the National Elections Response Group (NERG) and CODEO launched a post-elections security accountability project in 2021, aimed to support justice delivery institutions and aid affected victims in pursuit of justice.

He said although the pilot project ended in February 2022, many cases from the 2020 elections remained unresolved.

Unfortunately, Mr Aborampah said the 2024 elections had also seen a rise in violence and criminal incidents that required the attention of stakeholders to prioritise and ensure justice for the victims.

Safety

The Director of Education at the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Serebour Quaicoe, described the situation at the various collation centres as scary, and that even if the EC wished to re-collate some of the results as petitioned, its safety could not be guaranteed.

He, however, said that all the political parties had the results, adding that if they could be sincere to each other, the matter could be resolved.

"With this situation, who will be willing to volunteer to assist in the electoral process in 2028? If police stations could be attacked and security personnel physically assaulted, who are we at the EC to dare," Dr Quaicoe said, but added that "we are ready any day, any time, but we need security".