We are all marked by one thing, Ghana. – Ghanaians in China.

Ghanaians living in China on the 17th of November met at the Junshan Hotel Conference Center in Guangzhou to pray for Peaceful Elections in December at a Peace Congress organizsed by the China branches of the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress.

The Peace Congress, which was sponsored by the Green Intertrans Limited and Overseas Logistics both freight logistics companies in China, was under the theme “ Ghanaians in China: Our Role in Ensuring Peaceful Elections” and it saw the coming together of about 50 Ghanaian delegates from all walks of life- students, Clergy, businessmen and women as wells political party members. The event was organized to enable all Ghanaians in China the opportunity to pray for peaceful elections and also deliberate on ways we can contribute towards peaceful elections, amid pump and pageantry.

The Chairman of the occasion, Pastor Rhansford Baffuor Gyawu Kuffuor of the Royal House Chapel, China underscored the need to remember all stake holders in our prayers- from the electoral commission to the foot soldiers of the various political parties as any wrong move on the part of any of them could spell doom for our beloved country. The Special Guest of Honour, Rev Joseph Gyamfi, Head Pastor of The Church of Pentecost in Asia, in his address stated that “whether you are NDC or NPP, Northerner or Southerner, Ewe or Akan, we are all marked by one thing- we are Ghanaians”. He went on to say that we should be able to get to a stage where a man and his wife could belong to different political parties and yet stay together peacefully under the same roof.

Delivering a lecture on the theme, Dr Charles Dwamena, Chairman of the China Branch of the New Patriotic Party emphasized the need for all Ghanaians in China, most of whom are bread winners of their families, to call their relatives back home to advise and encourage them not to engage in violent and hostile acts that have the potential of destabilizing the peace in our country for we have only Ghana and the peace we enjoy should be jealously preserved by all before, during and after the December elections.

Solidarity messages were presented by Mr Gyau Tawiah and Mr Maxwell Mantey on behalf of NPP-China and NDC-China respectively.

The Church of Pentecost Prayer Team, led by Mrs Princess Gyamfi and Elder Frimpong, led the gathering in intercessory prayers for peaceful elections.

The Peace Congress ended with the issuance of an official communiqué, excerpts of which can be found below:

We believe that

a. The political tension in our beloved country is rising fast, past comfortable limits and as such urgent measures must be taken to bring it down

b. Politicians and their supporters can help in bringing down this tension should they put the interest of the nation first, and not that of their party, in all their campaigns.

c. Politicians should offer their ideas and programs for the electorate to evaluate instead of attacking and rubbishing those of their opponents

d. Political Party campaigns should be campaign of ideas and not campaign of tribal sentiments, violence or insults.

e. Politicians should make only promises that they can fulfill

f. Media discussions should be well moderated by the various hosts and hostess so that people do not use the power of the media to inflame violent passions

g. The Electoral Commission should allow journalist to be part of the special voting so that they will be free to monitor the elections properly on the election day

h. All Ghanaians in the diaspora should call their family members, friends and close associates back home to encourage and advise them not to engage in violent acts before, during and after the elections

i. Our politicians should emulate the United States of America. The loosing candidates should be courageous enough to call the winning candidate to congratulate him or her as this will send a signal of peace to all the foot soldiers.

j. We should all continue to pray for the stakeholders of this year’ elections- the Electoral Commission, the political parties, the security agencies and the election observers.

Signed,

Charles Dwamena - 13088675401

Chairman of Org. Committee

Chairman, NPP China Branch

Daniel Onyame Tetteh -15973125791

Co- Chairman of Org. Cttee

Chairman, NDC China Branch