PEOPLE OF TOLON-KUMBUNGU URGED TO EMBRACE PEACE

PEOPLE OF TOLON-KUMBUNGU URGED TO EMBRACE PEACE

Knowing the negative impact that geo-political conflicts could have on the lives of ordinary people and also on important national exercises especially in parts of the Northern Region, the National Commission for Civic Education (NECCE) with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has organized a one day sensitization workshop on peaceful district assembly and unit committee elections.

The objective of the workshop was to sensitize participants on the need to ensure violence free polls during the upcoming district assembly and unit committee elections scheduled for October this year.

Larry Bimi, National Chairman of the NCCE urged Ghanaians to consider the upcoming elections as a litmus test to deepen Ghana’s democratic credentials.

He re-emphasised the need for residents of the identified flashpoints in the Northern Region to stop chasing and killing their brethren over pertinent issues that could be resolved through dialogue.

“Whatever the provocations try to invoke the spirit of tolerance in you to prevent unnecessary conflicts in your respective communities,” he emphasized.

Mr. Bimi further appealed to residents of the Tolon-Kumbungu District to choose tolerance and patience as their guiding principle to move the district’s development agenda forward.

He also underscored the need for the EC to start using NCCE staff numbering about 1,900 as Returning Officers during presidential and parliamentary elections.

This, in his estimation could avoid the recurring problem of politicians pushing their party supporters into the EC to manipulate electoral results during elections.

Iliasu Ewuntomah, Tolon-Kumbungu District Director of the Electoral Commission also chastised political leaders for heightening tensions in the district during elections and cautioned them against such behaviour.

He therefore, called on all the stakeholders involved in all electoral practices to allow the Electoral Commission to conduct violence free, fair and transparent district assembly elections in the area and in subsequent polls.