NCCE urges Ghanaians to guard against conflicts

The Acting Central Regional Director of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Mr. Alex Sackey has entreated Ghanaians to guard against violence in this year's election since Ghana is the only country for them. He urged representatives of political parties and members of the Inter-Party Dialogue Committees (IPDC) to be ambassadors of peace and educate the electorate on the need to exercise restraint. Mr Sackey was addressing participants during a focus group discussion as part of measures in ensuring the conduct of free, fair and peaceful elections in December. The forty participants, who took part in the discussion organized by the NCCE in collaboration with the Oguaa IPDC, deliberated on issues that bordered on the challenges of women and people with disabilities in elections and the role of the IPDC in ensuring violence free elections. Mr. Sackey noted that Ghana's democracy had come a long way and was gradually growing and therefore Ghanaians should protect it. The participants during the discussion expressed concern about the indiscriminate mounting of public address systems by political parties in the various communities and stressed the need for the various assemblies to enact bye-laws to regulate its usage to stem confusion. They called on the electorate to resist the temptation of double voting because the computers would expose culprits and the law would severely deal with them. The participants also appealed to electoral officers to give priority attention to the vulnerable in society like pregnant women, persons with disabilities, nursing mothers and the aged during voting and not allow them to stay in long queues. They called on the government to empower the IPDC and resource it for it to be effective in settling electoral disputes. GNA