Channel energies to promote peace, unity - Dr Asante to NPP, NDC

The Ghana Centre for Democratic Governance (CDD-Ghana), has called on all political parties, especially the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to channel their energies towards promoting peace and unity in the country and not resort to actions that would promote conflict.

In a video shared with the Daily Graphic, the Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at the CDD-Ghana, Dr Kojo Asante, stressed the need for the two leading political parties to exercise restraint in their approach towards the compilation of a new voters register by the Electoral Commission (EC).

Dr Asante said anyone who would be entrusted with the responsibility to govern the country by January 7, 2021 would need the co-operation and the goodwill of the people to be able to work.

“This is the time that political leaders have to be talking about unity and not conflict and dividing us. We really need to have a different approach to any problem that we are going to have with elections,” he added.

Restraint

“The NDC and the NPP have to really step back, take a deep breath and appreciate the moment that we are in. There is a current pandemic, a coronavirus pandemic that is ravaging our society,” he said in a video.

Dr Asante said the COVID-19 pandemic had changed the economies of the world and the way people were even thinking about the future.

“We do not even know or appreciate what kind of impact it is going to have on ordinary citizens, their livelihoods and economic opportunities.

We do not know when this is going to end, there is so much to be done to think about how we are going to face the future and overcome this devastation,” he stated.

Way forward

Commenting on the best way to address the divided views on the compilation of a new register, Dr Asante said since the EC still insists on compiling the register, anyone with issues could opt for other lawful means to address their concerns including going to court.

Dr Asante said any party that thought the EC’s decision to compile a new voters register was unlawful could explore the possibility of going to the law court, stressing that “even though the lawful process can delay things, it is a much better option”.

“I know already that the NDC has gone to court on the lawfulness of the EC refusing to use Voter ID cards for people to identify themselves during the registration,” he added.

No fighting

He said since there was already a process in place to deal with the matter, “we should respect the court to give a ruling so that we can move forward.”

Dr Asante said there was no benefit in the current contest for anybody to want to go and fight or do things outside the laid down procedures in order “to give a mandate to whoever the people will choose as their President in the 2020 elections. It is completely unnecessary.”

Delayed registration

He conceded that lawful processes would delay an already encumbered registration process.

“Some of us have already done our analysis that shows that we are really risking this process because of all the delays that have happened if we want to still compile a new voters register.

So obviously, the lawful processes can delay things but that is a much better option if we want to consider other political options which include bringing other eminent people in to discuss how we can overcome this problem, I think we can do that,” he added.