The upcoming December 7th general election 2024 in Ghana is one of the intricate and delicate election to be conducted, having the capability to change the face of the country unexpectedly, and to leave traces of memorable times ever to be recorded in the history books of Ghana.
In the political arena, Atiwa East constituency is one to the political hot-zone which always receives a massive political impact as a result of political heads battling to grab power every December 7th general election in every 4 years as the 1992 constitution of Ghana demands. For this reason, raises the need to conduct the third edition of the District Inter-party Dialogue Committee meeting at the District Assembly complex on the date of September 5th, 2024
The event witnessed the presence of Mr. Shakil Mahamood Kpedau the District Coordinating Director, DSP Raymond Ibrahim Iddrisu the District Police Commander, Mr. Savior Ametepe the District Director for NCCE, Osaaberima Okogyeibusua Baning Duodu the chief of Anyinam, the district director for CHRAJ Mr. Joseph Agbeko, the district director for Electoral Commission, the district chief Imam, representative from the district local chairman for council of churches, a representative of other interest groups,, a representative from the assembly, all political representatives, all district security heads, representative for PWD’s, representative from the information service department, and the media.
The NCCE district director Mr. Savior Ametepe, gave his profound gratitude to the committee members for making time to participate to the meeting. He outlines the reasons for the conduct of the meeting and also explain the purpose of the invitation, which is aim at building consensus, to promote transparency, resolution of potential political conflicts, fostering trust among stakeholders, enhancement of accountability, and supporting the value of democratic governance which is enshrined in section 24 of the Local Governance Act 2016 (Act 936).
In the address to members of the committee, the DCD postulated that he had absolute confident in the capacity of the chairman of the committee in the person of Osaaberima Okogyeibusua Baning Duodu the chief of Anyinam. He intimated that, the chairman and members of the committee have the responsibility to ensure that, there is no chaos before, during, and after the December 7th general election. He was confident that, the Atiwa East District will waive the white flag of victory and maintain the harmonious peace already existing in the district.
The district director for NCCE reported on the research finding that was conducted by his outfit on previous general elections conducted in the past years, and the outcome indicates that the outcome indicates that, the true nature of general elections has been characterized by what is term as “vote buying”. vote buying has become part and parcel of us even as of now. With this reason there is a need to assess the negative impact on Ghana’s general election and it campaigns.
With respect to political campaigns, a significant amount of money is being paid to citizens including delegates as a way of encouraging casting of votes. For this very act from political leaders undermines the citizen civil right law when it comes to voting.
In addition to this statement, political party leaders he said, adheres to the demand of money from the citizen before casting their vote during primaries which is an indication of hinderance of citizen not exercising their civil rights in the true manner the civil right law specifies, and complete violation of the section 35 of the Public Election Regulation Act 2016 (C.I 94).
On this note, trust in political leaders is eroded to the extreme. Citizens no longer focuse on the proposed policies from political party leaders during election campaigns in fostering the country’s development and it future.
One of the proposed wayforward to the house in combatting vote buying is legal reforms and its enforcement. With respect to the enforcement of law, he said, the country has about 30 laws solely to combat against corruption in Ghana but still corruption is rampant. The other proposed wayforward is the fostering of assets disclosure and funding of campaigns to the Electoral Commission as the section 23 of the Public Election Regulation Act 2016 (C.I 95), and section 21 of the Political Parties Law, 2000 (Act 574) specifies.
The other propose wayforward highlighted by the director is the fostering of civil education as the NCCE Act 1993 (Act 452) clearly specifies, and detection and avoidance of deliberate misinformation and disinformation on the internet and other channel of communication, for this is the heartbeat of distortion of government policies in a democratic governance.
Several proof of evidence in pictures as screenshots from the several media official platforms to illustrate misinformation and disinformation were provided to the committee during presentation to affirm the understanding.
The house also heard the presentation from the district director for Electoral commission hammering on election violence. Some of the key issues noted as the causes of electoral violence were removal and defacing of political posters, unpleasant and unacceptable words from the media and political party leaders, removal of electoral materials, and intimidation, chieftaincy disputes, high poverty rate, distrust of electoral bodies and security services.
With refence to the presentation from the district director for electoral commission, the district police commander, however cemented the understanding attained with the Public Order Act 491 enacted in 1994. Some of the punch lines made to the hearing of the committee members was the notification of special event involving large masses to the Ghana Police Service. He said, special event must be put into writing and submitted to the Ghana police service with appended signatures to the police officer not bearing at least rank of an ASP within the stipulated time of 5 days before commencement of event.
Place and time of the special event, the proposed route(s), reason(s) of conduct, and signature(s) appendment are the core parameters needed in the writeup. The District Police Commander to the hearing of the committee made it clear that, the police have every right to conduct visibility assessment before, and during the special event to determine whether the special event has ability to create or arouse the distortion of public order safety. If the outcome of the assessment poses threat in any way to the citizens or any political party activities, the police can change the date and time or to an extent propose alternative route(s) if necessary.
If consensus is not attained, the Public Order Act, 1994 (Act 491) law mandates the Ghana Police Service to inform the district court judge to either restrain or terminate the special event or take any similar legal action(s).
In addition, he said the Police will be vigilant and conduct due diligence in maintaining the peace and order within the vicinity to the extent of barricading pedestrian and other roads if necessary.
The very last words to the committee were advice and opinion to the December 7th general election. He said, the stakes for the general election 2024 is very high and is of the first-time base on the assessment made by the Ghana Police Service and the National Security Service. He edged the house to do their very humanly possible best to maintain the already peace and order existing in Ghana and Atiwa East district. Within the ECOWAS level and to the world opinion, Ghana is one of the African countries used as a reference to illustrate peace and order, and the Ghana Police Service and the National Security Service and all other security services pledges to maintain the peace and order before, during, and after the December 7th general election 2024.