GNAT Elections

Koforidua, Dec. 4, GNA - The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has reminded the Government that it had a political and moral responsibility to ensure that the 2004 General Election was free and fair.

The Association, therefore, appealed to the authorities to guard against any form of intimidation against any voter during the polls on December 7.

The position of the Association was made known by the General Secretary of GNAT, Mrs Irene Duncan-Adanusa at a press conference organized at Koforidua on Friday, after a one-day senior staff end-of-year meeting.

Senior staff of GNAT attended the meeting from Accra and Regional Secretaries and their Assistants from all the ten regions of the country.

Mrs Duncan-Adanusa called on political parties that would be contesting the polls not to consider the elections as a matter of life and death matter to the extent that "people are compelled to employ all means to manipulate the electoral process". She urged party officials to ensure that their supporters exercised tolerance, even in the face of extreme provocations, since the country was not at war.

The Association asked the electorate not to allow themselves to be manipulated or misdirected by politicians to engage in activities that could mar the elections.

Mrs Duncan-Adanusa said reminded Ghanaians that they had accepted constitutional rule as the form of government and urged them to allow the ballot box to decide who would govern the country. She said the polls would be meaningless if people were coerced to engage in unlawful activities during the election. Mrs Duncan-Adanusa called on teachers and employees of the GNAT who would be engaged in various aspects of the elections, to discharge their duties efficiently to raise the image of GNAT and the teaching profession.