Stop electoral offences once and for all
The chaos that nearly marred almost all the Council of State elections at the regional election centres must not be left to pass without comments.
Check what happened in the Ashanti Region, for instance.
What were the intentions of the macho men who stormed the regional polling station to disrupt the exercise, by scattering ballot boxes?
All the incidents need thorough investigations and perpetrators brought to book.
Definitely, there are some faceless people behind the incidents as those giving tacit push for them.
These people must be fished out and they and their errand boys prosecuted for committing electoral offences.
All this while those of us working on The Ghanaian Times had been thinking that macho men and the uncivilised acts they unleashed on voters, Electoral Commission officials and others, as well as the damage they cause to electoral materials have been consigned to history.
It is clear those arrested in the past were not given deterrent punishment, which is why some macho men still could have the guts to undertake such heinous acts.
It can also be that those behind them are seen as untouchables, hence the perpetuity of the criminal acts.
We think that the State should rethink how it handles criminal cases in the country.
It appears such cases are either treated like misdemeanor or not prosecuted all because some political hands are flagging them to a stop.
We appeal to the Mahama administration to pay serious attention to electoral offences that can even cost lives, maim others and deny others their elected positions.
We haven’t forgotten, for instance, the disinformation put out before the December 7 voting day with the intent to cause some people to think that some Presidential candidates, including Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, would be voted for on the Constitutionally-fixed December 7 date, whereas the rest, including candidate John Dramani Mahama, would be voted for on a date later.
What has become of that case?
We think that even the delay in prosecuting electoral offences can embolden others to continue to commit such offences.
We think it is about the time to stop shielding electoral offenders with political shroud and swiftly prosecuted such offenders for the whole country to learn great lessons, to either refrain from such offences or commit them but agree to face the law when arrested.
Elections constitute one tool that provides people to express their political choices and contribute to the growth of democracy in the country.
In the face of this, the Constitutional Review must capture and have an enactment that would treat electoral offences as treason and those committing it as traitors.
There is the need to stop electoral offences in the country once and for all.
