National Election Response Group to address threats …to December general election
The West Africa Network for Peacebuilding on Friday (WANEP) has launched a National Election Response Group (NERG) to help address threats to the upcoming 2024 General Election.
The Group would discuss, develop and recommend strategies to address violent threats or issues that have the tendency to jeopardise the country’s peace and stability.
At the launch in Accra over the weekend, the Governing Board Chair of the National Peace Council (NPC), Dr Ernest Adu Gyamfi, stated that the council was delighted to collaborate with WANEP to pool resources together in preparation towards a peaceful election.
The event was organised by WANEP in partnership with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) and the African Union (AU).
Mr Gyamfi said the NERG was under WANEPs 2023 to 2026 Electoral violence Monitoring, Analysis and Mitigation Project (E-MAM Project), designed to contribute to the monitoring, analysing and mitigation of electoral violence in West Africa.
“We have proudly done this since 1992 and are looking forward to achieving peaceful elections again,” he noted.
Mr Gyamfi said the Global Peace Index since 2019 has ranked Ghana as the most peaceful country in the West Africa sub- region except in 2023 when the country lost that position to Sierra Leone, hence the need for a peaceful elections.
He again stated that ensuring peace during elections was a collective responsibility and expressed the need for collaboration between both state and non-state stakeholders.
Mr Gyamfi further said his outfit believed that if established institutions were allowed to do their work in accordance with the law, peace would prevail during the December elections.
Deputy Executive Director of WANEP, Mrs Levina Addae-Mensah, said that analysis indicated most individuals used money to influence the outcome of elections, adding that such practice if not checked would disrupt peace.
“Every vote cast is a voice heard, a testament to our collective will. However, when intimidation infiltrates this process, it erodes the trust and integrity essential to our democratic system”, she underscored.
The Resident Representative of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ghana, Dr Angela Lusigi, noted that the political atmosphere of West Africa has experienced intensive political conflicts hence the need for collaboration to eradicate the menace.
BY CECILIA LAGBA YADA
