Kofi Ampeah Woode
The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in collaboration with the Garrison Methodist Presbyterian Church (GMPC), Burma Camp, Accra, has held a day’s seminar to help in enhancing election security, and ensuring a peaceful polls in Ghana’s upcoming general elections in December 2024.
The seminar was held at the main auditorium of GMPC at Burma Camp, Accra, on Sunday 24 March 2024, with the Commandant, KAIPTC – Major General (Maj Gen) Richard Addo Gyane as the Guest of Honour, and a Senior Directing Staff, National College of Defence Studies (NCDS) – Brigadier General (Brig Gen) Fred Ntiri as the Moderator.
Panellists from the Ghana Police Service (GPS), National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), KAIPTC, and Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC), took turns to speak on the theme “The Role of the Security Agencies, Civil Society Organizations, Electoral Commission and the Religious Community, in Safeguarding the Peace, Enhancing Security and Ensuring a Peaceful 2024 General Elections in Ghana”.
Representing the EC, its Director for Electoral Services – Dr Serebour Quaicoe stated that for anyone to be conversant with electoral issues in Ghana, stakeholders would have to acquaint themselves with Articles 32 to 55 in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, which form the bases for the legalities of elections in Ghana.
He asserted that Ghana’s laws on elections are good and serve as benchmark, when many countries seek to draft or reform their electoral laws, and thus urged all concerned to be particularly acquainted with Articles 43, which deals with Voters’ Registration, and 127 which governs elections proper.
For Ghana’s General Elections in 2024, Dr Quaicoe cautioned against the misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ‘Fake News’, before, during, and after the elections, stating that elections mean power over people, resources, law and decision making, and urged Ghana to hasten slowly on digital elections, as it has proven to have loopholes, and thus dangerous, for now.
He concluded that a Polling Station is a security area, where every candidate of elections, and his/her spouse, have the right of entry to the Polling Station; and that although every voter also has the right to the centre, but is lost after the voter has cast their ballot, and has to leave the station, only to return when the polls are ended, for counting.
The Director, Security Secretariat, Police Headquarters – Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Victoria Yamoah, stated that elections security is a responsibility for all persons who have a stake in peace, which include all security agencies and the mass media.
She said that after every election, the security agencies review all activities related and make recommendations for the next, which leads to the activation of the National, Regional and District Elections Security Taskforces, with a mandate to secure a peaceful election.
Some of their activities include monitoring of entries into the country, of all media publications and broadcasts to forestall incitement to breach the peace (which involve legal minds and experts), roll out of several programs via various mechanisms to educate for peace and security (such as the Police Television station), timely deployment of personnel to all polling stations and the conveyance of elections materials.
ACP Mrs Yamoah stated that ballot box snatching offenders have been jailed, and would be publicised to put fear into potential offenders, and that the Police has Police Elections Security Secretariat stationed at the HQ, however any police station can take complaints or information on hotspots, across country, whiles Military patrols are conducted based on intelligence, and may not be in uniform.
The Deputy Chairman, General Services, NCCE – Mr Victor Brobbey, Esq. outlined some of the activities of his organization as supporting democracy, educating people to be better citizens, better civic behaviour, helping to fashion electioneering to be peaceful, issue-based and uneventful, conduct of research and surveys on matters of concern to elections.
He expressed concerns on the impending elections about violence, chieftaincy and ethnocentric campaigning, the negative use of AI, suggesting that the more outrageous a news item sounds, the more possible it would be untrue, and cautioned against complacency, which he said could be a threat to Ghana’s democracy.
Dr Victor Doke – Lecturer, Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research (FAAR), KAIPTC, said the Centre, being one of the three prestigious Training Centres of Excellence (TCE) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), runs Elections Observation/Management Courses, teaches details of credible elections to build capacity of officials, and will soon enrol a course in AI-related elections challenges.
The role of the Judiciary in elections, however, did not feature in the seminar, but is billed to highly feature in subsequent series of the seminar.
The KAIPTC Commandant, in his opening remarks, quoted the late Mr. Kofi Annan who once said: “Credible elections have to meet three essential criteria: inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability. That is the only way to earn the trust of the competitors and the public.”
He called on Ghanaians to together, see it as a duty to ensure that the legacy of democracy bequeathed to them by their forebears is not squandered away through petty bickering and vicious acrimony before, during and after national elections.
He continued to say that, as a TCE engaged in matters of peace, security, conflict management and resolution, KAIPTC would like to call on all stakeholders to uphold and sustain the peace being enjoyed currently, by ensuring a free and fair elections, where citizens are not intimidated or harmed in any way.
He concluded that, in as much as constructive dialogue should be the way forward in resolving any political crisis, all stakeholders should be well prepared, and ensure a fair and level playing field for all actors, in order to avoid any disturbances before, during and after the elections.
By Kofi Ampeah-Woode
