Election 2024: WANEP, Peace Council charge parties to cooperate with EC

The West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) and the National Peace Council (NPC) have urged political parties to cooperate with the Electoral Commission (EC) and National Election Security Taskforce in the discharge of its duties.

"We implore political parties to encourage their supporters to be law-abiding and all Ghanaians to be peaceful during the post-election period," they said.

The two organisations said this when they brought down the curtains on a project they jointly carried out to monitor the 2024 elections.

The project, 2024 Election Situation Room (ESR) monitors, reports, analyses and facilitates responses to violent threats to the peaceful conduct of the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Observers

The ESR was operated from December 6-8, 2024 at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra.

In all, 510 accredited observers including 310 observers from WANEP were deployed to 276 constituencies prioritised as "Very high risk" to "medium risk" constituencies.

The ESR is an integral part of the Electoral Violence Monitoring, Analysis, and Mitigation (E-MAM) project, which is supported by the European Union and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and with complementary funding from the governments of Sweden, Austria, and the United Kingdom. It is designed to mitigate election violence in 12 West African countries through National Early Warning Systems (NEWS). 

Deployment

Addressing the press last Sunday to wind down the operation of the ESR, the Chairman of the NPC, Rev. Dr Ernest Adu-Gyamfi said the National Election Taskforce "Is encouraged to deploy timely and effective response mechanism to address security concerns in this post-election period".

He entreated Ghanaians to celebrate victory in magnanimity, demonstrate patriotism and embrace civic responsibility in the interest of social cohesion and national unity.

"With reference to the Election Peace Pact signed, we encourage all stakeholders to utilise laid-down procedures to seek redress on any electoral grievances," he said.

The ESR encouraged all parties and supporters to remain calm and uphold the rule of law to preserve the peace of the country.

Patriotism

Rev. Dr Adu-Gyamfi commended Ghanaians for their patriotism and patience in the electoral process and also applauded the efforts of the EC, political parties, the National Election Security Taskforce, civil society organisations, women, youth groups and the media for their contribution towards the relatively peaceful elections.

"We commend Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for upholding his commitment to the Presidential Peace Pact in his concession speech this morning. This action has enhanced Ghana's democratic process and made our country proud and confirmed our position as the beacon of democracy in Africa," he said.

He also congratulated president-elect John Mahama for his social media acceptance of the concession by the NPP presidential candidate".

On lessons learnt from the election, Rev. Dr Adu-Gyamfi said the signing of the presidential and parliamentary peace pacts was essential to committing political party candidates and their supporters to peaceful elections and acceptance of the outcomes.

"Early concession of defeat by presidential and parliamentary candidates is vital to douse political tensions in the post-election period," he emphasised.