The National Peace Council (NPC) has urged the leaders of political parties’ youth wings to focus their youthful efforts on fostering Peaceful Elections within the political arena in order to support the consolidation of the nation’s democratic administration, with the general election scheduled for 2024 taking place in precisely 98 days. The council stated that the elections on December 7 will serve as a gauge of how resilient the nation’s democracy is, and as such, it was necessary that young leaders of political parties refrain from actions and statements that would jeopardise national harmony.
The plea was made by NPC member Joana Adzoa Opare, who emphasised that peaceful political activity is necessary for Ghana’s youth, who make up over 56% of the voting population, to continue to represent their country as the epicentre of democracy in Africa. At a gathering yesterday in Accra for leaders of national youth parties advocating for peaceful elections, Mrs. Opare made the demand.
Together with youth activists from other political organisations, the conference brought together national and regional youth organisers from the two major political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC). The function of young political party organisers in nonviolent campaigns, encouraging youth involvement and representation in party politics and administration, and reducing false, misleading, and malicious information on social media were some of the main topics covered at the conference.
Dr. Vincent Azumah, Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), stated that there was sufficient information to suggest that, should precautions not be taken, there may be electoral violence in certain regions of the country this year. He disclosed that over 200 constituencies have been designated as hotspots for violence in this year’s election as part of WANEP’s Election Monitoring and Violence Mitigation Project. According to Dr. Azumah, the assessment revealed that 30 seats had been classed as high risk for violence, and 29 constituencies, or 10% of the total, were very high risk areas.
SOURCE: https://dew360.net
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