The Bono Regional Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council (NPC), Suallah Abdallah Quandah, has cautioned politicians to shun comments that denigrate people’s culture, traditions and beliefs.
He emphasised the need for political parties and their followers to exercise restraint in their commentaries to avoid escalation of violence before, during and after the 2024 general election.
“I urge politicians to guard the country’s democracy by refraining from making speeches that could be detrimental to people’s culture, traditions and beliefs as we warm up towards the 2024 general elections.”
Speaking to JoyNews at Sunyani in the Bono region, Mr Quandah tasked the political parties and their officials to educate their supporters on laws geared towards preserving the country’s peace and democracy.
According to him, Ghana’s peace is essential to creating a conducive environment for good governance, hence the need to appreciate the ingredients that makeup democracy and good governance.
“We must not deploy political campaigns or slogans tainted with offensive words that are likely to injure religious, ethnic, tribal or sectional feelings of the electorate directly or indirectly,”he added.
He advised political actors not to entertain abusive and intemperate language or innuendoes designed to provoke violent reactions of the people during their political campaigns.
Mr Quandah said, “These negative words and actions could truncate our cherished peace – stay away from them.”
He entreated the Electoral Commission to remove every element of mistrust in the processes leading to the 2024 polls and urged political parties to conduct clean campaigns ahead of the general elections.
“What we need is a peaceful conduct of election 2024 to guarantee the stability and peace of our country,”he stressed.
He further called on the Electoral Commission to fix the challenges that characterised the recent voter registration exercise and the District Assembly election because the drawbacks could trigger violence during the general elections.
On funding of political parties, Mr Quandah suggested the establishment of a Political Parties Support Fund (PPSF), which he said should be managed by a special committee of the EC.
He underscored the need for the country to deal with vigilantism and monetisation, which he noted have gained notoriety on the political landscape.
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