COUNCIL TO ENSURE PEACEFUL POLLS (p.28) 14-08-08

Story: Kofi Yeboah

THE National Peace Council (NPC) has drawn up a programme to hold a series of meetings with all political parties, the security agencies and the Electoral Commission (EC) to discuss how best to ensure a peaceful election in December.
The meetings, which begin early next month, would discuss the causes of violence and conflicts that have so far characterised the election process and how best to address those problems.
The Executive Secretary of the NPC, Mr P. K. Opoku-Mensah, who made this known to the Daily Graphic yesterday, said signals from the recent voter registration exercise suggested that “we should work harder, otherwise we will be overtaken by events”.
The NPC, under the chairmanship of the Catholic Bishop of Cape Coast, Cardinal Peter Appiah-Turkson, is a body of eminent persons dedicated to the promotion of peace in the country.
Commenting on the violence and rancour that characterised the voter registration exercise, Mr Opoku-Mensah described those incidents as rather unfortunate.
He advised Ghanaians to exercise restraint and desist from the blame game, stressing that it was not fair to blame the EC for the lapses, since the registration exercise was based only on estimated figures, that might inform the inadequacy of registration materials provided by the EC.
Mr Opoku-Mensah urged Ghanaians and political parties in particular to rather support the EC to carry out a successful election in December, expressing the hope that the commission would also straighten its rough edges after the registration exercise to ensure a clean voters register.
On the Bawku conflict, he said the NPC had been engaging the parties in the conflict and opinion leaders from the area who were resident in Accra in a discussion, with the view to finding a lasting solution to the problem.
Mr Opoku-Mensah said response from the peace initiative, which started last May, had been very positive.
“You can realise that they all want peace. It’s unfortunate that some of the misunderstandings result in conflicts,” he observed.