The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has refused to sign the final roadmap and code of conduct document on the eradication of political vigilantism in the country.
Not even the Peace Council Chair’s plea for the party to sign the document sufficed.
A leading member of the party, Alex Segbefia, said not only is the ceremony to sign the document premature, but the absence of other stakeholders to append their signatures to the document is also worrying.
Joy News’ Kwesi Parker-Wilson was at the signing ceremony and reports that at a short media briefing after the boycott, Mr Segbefia said, “we do not think we have exhausted all the possible issues that are required to have a meaningful document that we can all work with.”
This, he explained, is because while the roadmap has 22 recommendations, only four of those relate to political parties. The other 18 belong to others namely, government, National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Civil Service Organisations, Electoral Commission (EC) among others.
However, “none of these are signatories to the document we are going to sign. We cannot be seen to be signing a document for which other parties who are playing a part do not sign because then, we cannot effectively monitor it or be in the position to ensure that whatwe are signing will be effective.
“We think that the contents are good but they do not have a way of making sure that it becomes effective,” he continued.
In the absence of a representative from the EC, NCCE, the Judicial Service and some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Mr Segbefia said if even NDC signs the document, it has no power to enforce or monitor it.
“We should go back, get a meaningful document, bring all the other parties involved to sign so that when we have to implement and update the code of conduct and others they will be signatories to the document,” he said.
John Boadu signed the document on behalf of the NPP
But the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) had no reservations about the document.
General Secretary of the party, John Boadu said the timing is right and with a law banning the activities of political vigilantism, the document will serve as a good reference point for them.
“We believe that if all actors will make sure that our members are restricted to our core duty of ensuring that we propagate what we believe in, and through lawful means win power from the mandate of the people and also have the opportunity to implement what we believe in, I think that we will be able to reach a level where we will reduce the menace to its barest minimum,” he said.
Background
The political vigilantism dialogue was instituted by the National Peace Council following the violence that marred the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency by-election in 2019.
Despite earlier disagreements, the NPP and NDC committed to the dialogue and indicated their preparedness to end the menace.
The dialogue was meant to focus on examining the draft roadmap and code of conduct prepared by the Technical Committee as part of steps to tackle the menace.
The 31-page road map has what the parties need to do in the short, medium and long term to eradicate political vigilantism from Ghana’s political dispensation.