With less than six months to the presidential and parliamentary polls, Ghanaians are looking up to the election management body for the conduct of a credible, hitch-free election in line with President Akufo-Addo’s pledge to ensure violent free elections.
President Akufo-Addo, addressing chiefs and people of Elmina at the Benya Lagoon for the rituals to officially commence this year’s Bakatue Festival, vowed to ensure that the 2024 general election is transparent, free and fair, and without violence.
He has, therefore, cautioned elements plotting to foment trouble in the election to reconsider their action, stressing that he would not countenance any act of violence.
According to him, “We are going to elect a leader; we are not going for war.
I want them to understand that my government will not allow any nation wrecker to plunge this country into a state of war and anarchy because of the election,” he stated.
“The election will be transparent and fair such that the verdict will be accepted by all, regardless of who wins or loses,” he added.
Coming from a president, who presided over the most barbaric acts of violence, leading to deaths of innocent Ghanaians, ever perpetrated in our democratic journey by men in uniform, this promise, should worry all well-meaning Ghanaians and must be taken with a pinch of salt.
The Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election On January 31, 2019, following the death of Emmanuel Kyeremanten Agyarko, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Constituency, national security operatives, who were masked attacked and assaulted 18 people, including the MP of Ningo Prampram. Some people were wounded by gun-shots.
President Akufo-Addo, whitewashed the report of a 3-member committee set up to investigate the incidence.
In the 2020elections, two supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) were shot and killed, while an unspecified number of people are also said to have sustained gunshot wounds following a shooting incident at the Techiman South Constituency in the Bono East Region.
The deceased, were hit by stray bullets when the police and military officers deployed to ensure law and order fired several warning shots to control the crowd following the announcement of the parliamentary election results.
In both incidents, not a single person, has been held responsible for these heinous crimes.
It is a given that democracy thrives on the ability of persons to freely, without let or hindrance, make a choice. Under no circumstances should such decisions be influenced or engineered by threats and the use of arms or force.
We are compelled to remind President Akufo-Addo that, before he makes any promise of election 2024, he should first of all ensure that, those who were brutalized in the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency, as well as the families, who lost their loved ones in Techiman South, all receive the justice they deserve.
