Yendi Catholic Diocese calls for peaceful elections

he Catholic Diocese of Yendi in collaboration with SELL Programme Ghana and Catholic Relief Services have intensified education on peaceful elections on December 7, 2020.

As part of such programmes, they organised youth engagement towards a peaceful election in the residence of Bishop of Yendi, at Yendi in the Northern Region.

Attendees included; the youth of New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), Conventional People’s Party (CPP) Youth leaders, Youth in Parliament amongst others.

In his welcoming address, Bishop Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai reminded Ghanaians that collaboration by all of them was needed for peaceful elections in the December polls.

He said such elections came with violence in some flashpoints in the country and the religious bodies had a stake in working hard to avoid them and the brainstorming with the youth to know the direction was crucial.

Bishop Boi-Nai gave the assurance that they would ensure peaceful polls by constantly educating the youth against violence.

Mr Patrick Williams, Catholic Relief Service Programme Manager of Sahel Initiative, USA indicated that the meeting was aimed at looking at the challenges and rating to Ghana’s election 2020, specifically to Yendi that just came out of perpetual disagreements.

He believed that their presence at the engagement would help them in moving their vision of peaceful election forward and apart from this engagement, series of such meetings were organized in Ghana, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger all aimed towards peace.

Mr Vincent Agyei Executive Team Leader of SELL Programme Ghana said it was one of the meetings they organized and will be organizing more of such engagements towards violence-free December 2020 election in Northern Region and Ghana as a whole.

He said it was not for Catholic Relief Services, SELL Programme Ghana and Catholic Diocese of Yendi alone to educate the Youth on peace, but it was for them to work together with the youth to achieve the peaceful election in December.

Mr Agyei said the role of Traditional Authorities Media, the youth, the Electoral Commission and the Police was crucial from the beginning to the end.

During brainstorming time, the participants suggested that there should be political peace march in Yendi, workshops for Parliamentary Candidates, Bishop’s Conference and Peace Council should caution politicians to use decent language in their campaigns and should desist from vote-buying.

Religious bodies should also organize radio programmes on peaceful elections by involving the political parties amongst others.