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United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Director, Mr Dominic Sam
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Director, Mr Dominic Sam

‘World expects Ghana to go through peaceful polls’

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Director, Mr Dominic Sam, has said Africa and the world at large have high expectations that the 2016 election will be peaceful, free, fair, transparent and credible.

He has therefore urged Ghanaians to once again go through the December 7, election smoothly to entrench the country's credential as a beacon of democracy in Africa.

Mr Sam, who made the call in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of a two-day training course on election management for field managers in Accra last Monday, said "Ghana cannot fail the continent and the world in 2016.”

He said Ghana's exemplary conduct of elections with national ownership had resulted in six successive peaceful and successful elections.

"Successful and peaceful election is not an option, but a must. We at UNDP are confident that Ghana will rise to the occasion," he said.

Polling station officials in the hotspots identified by the Electoral Commission (EC) are attending the course organised by the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD).

Point of reference

Mr Sam said the training was critical for maintaining peaceful non-violence election and consolidating the gains made in recent years to strengthen Ghana's democracy.

For instance, he said, Ghana was one of the foremost countries to peacefully transfer power democratically from one party to the other in 2001 and 2009.

"For us at UNDP, Ghana is not just a country, it is a point of reference for the sub-region and the continent at large when it comes to democracy.

"Ghana is viewed as having exhibited relative good performance in the area of democratic governance, arising from our multi-party political system, established governance institutions, respect for the rule of law and human rights, growing media pluralism and strong civil society activism," he said. 

EC reforms

The Deputy Chairperson of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Ms Georgina Opoku Amankwa, said the commission, in collaboration with its stakeholders, had come up with electoral and administrative reforms to properly manage the electoral processes to ensure fair and transparent elections whose results would be accepted by all stakeholders.

She mentioned the introduction of biometric verification device at exhibition centres during the exhibition of the provisional voters register and the increased number of biometric verification devices to two at all polling stations for the December 7, election as one of the reforms.

The implementation of the continuous voter registration side by side the periodic voter registration and election officials to swear an oath before being assigned to duty are  also part of the reforms.

Security apparatus

The Commandant of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), Air Vice Marshal Griffiths Santrofi Evans, said the fragile security situation in the sub-region had imposed further obligations on Ghana's security apparatus to take proactive measures and to remain even more vigilant as the country approached the December 7, election.

He said violence in the form and range of intemperate language, poster defacement, public order abuse, snatching of ballot boxes and biometric devices, vandalism of property and shooting and maiming of individuals and groups were all acts of intimidation perpetrated by elements who posed as party supporters.

 

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