Contain, prosecute all electoral offences!

 Post-election vio­lence is not uncommon in the country as pockets of such violence have been record­ed since 1992 when its Fourth Republic was birthed.

However, The Ghanaian Times never thought that there would be post-election violence this year to cause the police to deploy hundreds of security personnel across the country to contain the situation.

Before voting on Saturday, the National Election Security Task Force (NESTF), which has the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo-Dampare, as its chair­man, assured the public of a robust system in place to contain violence before, during and after the elections.

The ‘before-and-during-the election test’ was excellently passed to the extent that the NESTF earned commendation.

Did the task force go to sleep, thereby creating a security void that allowed some miscreants to indulge in post-election violence, including arson and looting?

At the time of going to the press yesterday, the Ghana Police Service (GPS) had announced the arrest of nine more individu­als in connection with the arson attack on the Electoral Commis­sion (EC) office in Ayensuano in the Eastern Region, to bring the total number of suspects arrested for election-related disturbances to 106.

The GPS said all the suspects were in custody assisting with ongoing investigations into the violence and vandalism that occurred after the elections.

It is intriguing that in spite of the public education about what a peaceful election is and how the citizenry can contribute to achieving that, some people elect to go the opposite way every election year such that lives and property are destroyed.

The Ghanaian Times would not be surprised to hear of fresh arrests of suspects involved in post-election violence.

What pushes some people to get involved in such chaos?

Is the cause their own foolhar­diness, some external influence giving assurance of no punish­ment or the perception of the general breakdown of law and order in the country?

The Ghanaian Times is inclined to conclude that electoral offenc­es in the country have not been sanctioned enough to serve as deterrence to others.

It appears party affiliation works in such matters in favour of the perpetrators, especially when it is their party that has won power.

Is it not sad to read a BBC News report posted online yes­terday under the headline ‘Doz­ens of Ghana president-elect’s supporters arrested in post-poll chaos’?

The sadness is in the fact that it says in part that: “In Ghana, it is common for supporters of the winning party to take over state institutions, demanding that the incumbent government’s appoin­tees vacate their offices before the president-elect is sworn in.”

The whole phenomenon, not only the current one, is a blot on the country’s reputation as one that conducts peaceful elections because peace in the post-elec­tion period is what makes elec­tions truly peaceful.

Thank God Mr Mahama him­self has joined those condemn­ing the vandalism and personally called on President Nana Addo Dabkwa Akufo-Addo and the se­curity agencies to “act decisively” in addressing the violence.

The Ghanaian Times, therefore, believes that in spite of having some of his supporters involved in the violence as alleged by the BBC report, President Mahama supports the police deployments as they are meant to contain the situation.

All this paper hopes to hear and see is the prosecution of, at least, all electoral offences committed this year, including misinformation and disinforma­tion that sought to deny some presidential candidates votes on December 7.