Let’s abide by code of conduct of political parties –Rev. Asante

The Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, Chairman of the National Peace Council, on Wednesday stressed the need to heighten public interest and awareness on the existence and provisions of the Political Parties Code of Conduct.

He said educating the public would not only heighten public awareness, but would ensure that the political parties, their activists and supporters were aware of the provisions of the code, and be guided by its tenet to conduct their campaigns in a more civilized manner.

Most Rev. Asante made this observation at a day’s workshop, organized by the Institute for Economic Affairs, (IEA) on the theme “Towards violence free election in Ghana: The Political Parties’ code of conduct 2012,” in Accra. The workshop was to create the platform to educate and engage stakeholders at the grassroots level on the 2012 political parties’ code of conducts in all the ten regions.

He noted that the roots of every thriving democracy were to be found in peace, stability, law and order as well as compliance by all stakeholders with well defined electoral laws and codes.

He said the code of conduct, which had been in existence since 2000 and re-adopted in 2012 by all political parties and other stakeholders sets out the guidelines by which all political parties agree to be bound in the course of their campaigning and electioneering, and covers broad range of matters including abuse of incumbency, defacing of posters, biased media reporting and campaign violence.

“Whiles the political parties code of conduct had been in existence since 2000, not enough education had been done to ensure that the political parties and the majority of Ghanaians were aware of its content”.

Most Rev. Asante said in view of this, the IEA had established a National enforcement bodies in all the ten regions, to monitor the conduct of political parties to ensure that they behaved in a manner that was expected of them as enshrined in the code.

Mrs. Hilary Gbedemah, Rector of The Law Institute, said the roots of every thriving democracy were found in peace, stability, law and order, as well as compliance by all stakeholders with well defined electoral laws and codes.

She said the code entreats all Political parties, candidates and election officials to adhere to existing electoral and civic laws as well as the provision of the Criminal Offence Act 1960 (Act 29), and desist from the use of inflammatory language, heightening of ethnic sentiments and other tensions, personal attacks and acts of violence either directly or by proxy.

According to the code of conducts for 2012, political parties would collaborate with the Electoral Commission (EC), National Commission for Civic Education, Civil Society Organizations, and the IEA to form a body for the purpose of investigating complaints raised under the present code.

She urged political parties and political leaders to demonstrate commitment towards the enforcement and implementation of the provision of the code by educating their members and supporters and disown those who breach any of the provisions.

Brigadier Francis Agyemfra, Visiting Senior Fellow, IEA, called on Ghanaians to work towards maintaining the peace and stability being enjoyed, saying, “there is a thin line between peace and war, once war is started it is very difficult to stop it”.