3 Commit to violence-free polls

Three national election stakeholders have committed themselves to a credible, free, fair and a violence-free 2016 election.

They individually gave the assurance that they would work with stakeholders towards a free, fair and violence-free election to safeguard the peace of Ghana.

The three stakeholders — the Electoral Commission (EC), the security agencies and the Judicial Service — made the commitment at a stakeholder forum on the 2016 election organised by the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) in Accra last Wednesday.

The forum was held on the theme: “Towards credible, acceptable and violence-free elections: the role of key stakeholders.”

 The stakeholders also rolled out their preparations towards a violence–free 2016 election and beyond.

Electoral Commission 

In a speech read on his behalf on the preparations of the EC, the Director of Elections at the EC, Mr Samuel Tettey, said the Commission would implement all 41 recommendations made by the Reform Committee.

He said the EC has, therefore, included the recommendations in the CI 91 which was an improved version of the CI 72, which it had repealed.

Some of those recommendations are continued registration, conducting the election on the first Monday in November in every election year, and the institutionalisation of Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC).

Other recommendations are the call to use biometric verification devices (BVDs) for the exhibition of the provisional voters register, among other recommendations.

“The Commission, however, rejected the enforcement of the no verification no vote proposal because the EC was of the view that no voting without biometric verification would disenfranchise some eligible voters,” he said.

Stakeholders forum on Election 2016 

Security agencies 

On behalf of the security agencies, the Director of Operations for the Ghana Police Service, Dr Benjamin Agordzo, said the Inspector General of Police had instituted Election Security Task Force to ensure the electoral processes and activities were without violence and interruptions.

He said to maintain public confidence in the security agencies, the police, by the end of May 2016, would have finished assigning security details to all presidential candidates for the 2016 presidential election. 

Dr Agordzo described activities of vigilante groups as criminal and illegal and said the security agencies would “crush” them.

He said their activities were threats to the peace of Ghana before, during and after the election.

“Training programmes have been rolled out for all security personnel on electoral laws and reforms to boost the operations of the security forces in the election season,” he said.

Judiciary 

 Concerning the preparations of the Judiciary, the Director of the Judiciary Training Institute who doubles as a Justice of the Court of Appeal, Prof. Justice Dennis Adjei, said the Judicial Service was building the capacity of all judges and magistrates on electoral laws and reforms to ensure the expeditious and fair adjudication of all electoral cases.

He said the service was studying all electoral reforms to adequately include them in the judicial books guiding adjudication of  election cases among other preparations.