CODEO: Amenfi West campaigns peaceful

Local election observer, CODEO, has said it is satisfied with the peaceful environment within which campaigning has been done, so far, in the Wassa Amenfi West Constituency ahead of Tuesday’s by-election, which has been necessitated by the death of John Gyetuah, late MP for the area.

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers said, in a statement signed by Coordinator Albert Arhin, that its pre-election observations since Wednesday, December 9, 2015, show that there “visible civic and voter education across the constituency, peaceful and violence-free campaigning environment and the keen participation of all actors, particularly the various candidates and their political parties and supporters.”

CODEO said it noted preparations being made by the Electoral Commission towards the conduct of the by-election, which includes training of poll officials, deployment of election materials, and voter education activities. Visible voter education posters have been seen in most communities within the constituency, it added.

The statement said CODEO also noted the complementary roles being played by other stakeholders such as churches and local radio stations in sensitising the electorate about the elections.

“The Breman and Asankragwa branches of the Catholic Church for instance, as well as local radio station Royal FM have been educating voters about the elections and the need to eschew any forms of violence during the elections.

“With regards to the atmosphere of campaigning, CODEO has observed intensive campaigning by candidates, political party executives and supporters, who have been engaging in various forms of campaign strategies such as door-to-door campaigning, posters; keep fit activities, rallies, and radio programmes to spread their campaign messages.

“In particular, representatives of the four parties contesting political parties – the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP), and the United Front Party (UFP), have been busily campaigning for votes,” CODEO added.

It commended all the candidates and their supporters, who have, so far, “conducted themselves well in their campaign and generally abstained from the use of abusive language, especially as the NPP held its rally on Sunday, December 13, at Asankragwa and the NDC did same at Samreboi at the same period. No violent incident has been recorded so far.”

While commending all stakeholders for their conduct in the pre-election environment, CODEO said it “wishes to remind all to do same on polling day on Wednesday, December 16, 2015 so that together we can achieve a successful electoral outcome. The Coalition reminds all that it will be deploying election-day observers throughout the constituency and inform Ghanaians accordingly about its observation findings.”