Debate on voters register: Let us jaw jaw, not war war
Discussions on whether or not Ghana needs an entirely new voters register or that we must clean the existing one have been quite intense over the past few months, with our two former Presidents — Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor — joining the discussions.
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In any democracy, everyone has the freedom to express his or her views on any national discourse and that is the beauty of this style of governance.
However, the debate on the voters register, apart from being intense, has taken a tangent that is dangerous for the country’s fledgling democracy and its peace.
We have realised that instead of people being tolerant of one another’s views and allowing the ultimate interest of the nation to guide their thoughts, they have rather become very entrenched in their positions along political party lines and are not willing to come off their high horses.
The Daily Graphic believes that the best approach to this debate should not be blind loyalty to political party ideals and fixated views of quasi or affiliates of political groups but a liberal and accommodative stance that will consider other intelligent and discerning views.
After all, no one is more Ghanaian than another, and all of us have only one country which we call Ghana and which, for some time now, has become the toast of the rest of the world in terms of democratic governance.
We, therefore, urge all discourse on the register, especially by political party leadership, to have the nation’s interest as the guiding compass, with the view to arriving at the best decision for the country.
The 2016 parliamentary and presidential elections are not far off, which is why we must all put our act together in a mature conciliatory way before we enter the election year.
We call on the Electoral Commission (EC) and the Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) to lead the charge.
We do not have to engage in unhealthy talk that will result in violence that will eventually mar our democracy.
Ghana is the only country we have and we must, therefore, be tolerant of one another’s views and make cogent submissions on the voters register which, in the final analysis, will inure to the benefit of the entire country.
Holding on to entrenched and uncompromising views will only dent our image as a beautiful nation of diverse cultures and persuasions but unified in our goals with a common destiny.
We cannot afford to gamble with the peace we enjoy as a country, by using intemperate language and adopting uncompromising stance in the ongoing debate over the voters register, as if wisdom only resides in one person or group’s head or that a political party is more Ghanaian than the other.