Political campaigns must foster unity — GNAAP President
Political candidates in the 2024 general election have been advised to use election campaigns as a platform to foster unity among the public to consolidate the country’s democratic credentials.
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The President of the Ghana National Association of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Practitioners (GNAAP), Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, addressing the 11th annual general conference of the association in Accra last Saturday, explained that strengthening the culture of respect for all groups of people in the country would ensure inclusiveness and guarantee peace during and after the elections.
“If political candidates are desirous to serve the interests of the people they represent, they will not promote electoral violence, but would rather use the election campaigns to foster unity among the population to achieve national developmental goals,” he said.
The conference was on the theme: “Strengthening Ghana’s Democracy through Dialogue and Inclusiveness — The Role of ADR”. Up to 77 new members were inducted into the association.
The Patron, Alex Nartey, led the new members to swear the oath of allegiance and membership.
ADR
Mr Owusu-Koranteng underscored the need to include ADR in the country’s electoral process ahead of the upcoming general election. In doing so, he said, it would help in addressing some of the conflicts that often occurred before, during, and after elections.
“There is no doubt that our people are still adjusting to the historical change in our social and political structure. “It is our strong belief that ADR, which is premised on our historical principles of reconciliation and peace building, is a time-tested social cohesion instrument which must be promoted as of our electoral culture to avoid occurrences of conflicts that have become associated with our elections,” Mr Owusu-Koranteng explained.
He advised political activists and candidates to be united by the desire to ensure that this year’s elections united the citizenry and strengthened the country’s resolve to harness the national resources to promote national development.
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He said the association was ready to provide free conflict resolution services during and after this year’s elections for speedy resolution of conflicts and to collaborate with institutions such as the National Peace Council (NPC), the judicial service and electoral institutions.
Peace
The Executive Secretary of the NPC, George Amoh, noted that the mandate of the NPC was not different from that of GNAAP, which included conflict resolutions. He explained that the NPC, in its quest to ensure that this year’s general election was a peaceful one, had undertaken a number of proactive measures.
The measures include an engagement with various stakeholders, including the Inspector General of Police, leadership of the various political parties, the Electoral Commission, and the owners of media houses.
He indicated that the NPC had set up a committee to monitor political utterances and commentaries and planned to set up situation rooms in five locations in the country.
The Chairperson for the occasion, the Adontenhene of Adomfe, Nana Barfi I, in his closing remarks, urged participants in the conference to be advocates of peaceful conflict resolutions.