Dr William Ahadzie, the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority, says though there are many challenges to the democratic practice, the survival of democracy depends on a rigid commitment to the rules of engagement, particularly as they relate to election.
He said in the West African Sub-region, presidential and parliamentary elections were high stake events that easily pushed countries over the precipice if not well managed.
Dr Ahadzie was speaking on the role of Non State Actors (NSAs) in promoting Transparent, Accountable and Violent Free Election at the first Annual Convention with Grant Partners, Civil Society and other stakeholders organized by STAR – Ghana.
He said acts of omission or commission by an incumbent government, misconduct on the part of political parties, corrupting the electoral system, judicial bias in rule of interpretation and application, media bias, political thuggery, weak policing of the electoral process and poor election management emasculated political competitors.
“These infractions occur in the run up to elections, during and after elections and this means that preventing violence in elections is not an event.”
Dr Ahadzie said NSAs were groups that had the capacity to do advocacy, build capacity, educate and inform, monitor elections, facilitate healthy debates, mediate conflict and sanction erring political activists, adding that, “these essentially define the contributions that NSAs can make to minimize the incidence of election-related violence.”
He noted that dialogue between NSAs and state actors on the establishment of transparent electoral process was key and could reduce doubt and promote integrity of the process, and that mechanisms that could be employed were round table discussions, seminars and workshops, to unpack the process and remove nuclear or cumbersome processes.
“Presidential debates are fast becoming a way of promoting issue-based political campaigning in Ghana and in advanced democracies; I commend the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) for creating such a platform.”
Dr Ahadzie also noted that training election observers and running orientation programmes for underrepresented groups and also training new parliamentary candidates on decent campaigning methods contribute to election violence minimization, adding “female candidates are unlikely to display the level of belligerence associated with male office seekers.”
He said the media should play an important role by promoting balanced political reportage and commended the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) for calling on the media to blacklist “foul-mouth politicians”.
“NSAs that intend to monitor the impending election should begin to create linkages with the state security machinery for quick information sharing on potential conflict situation. Prompt information sharing prevents the eruption of violence.”
Dr Ahadzie added that NSAs might consider sourcing funds to support political parties to pay polling agents who represent them at the polling station level to increase accountability at the polling station to avoid violence.
He said NSAs had a critical role to play in maintaining the sovereignty of the state, adding “In fact we do not only need to protect the state, we also need to expand the state to allow better rights assurance and the harvesting of dividends for development.”
Ms Lawrencia Adams, Project Manager of STAR-Ghana, said the project was expected to contribute to increased accountability and responsiveness of governments, traditional authorities and the private sector and would address the need to increase civil society and parliamentary influence in Ghana to foster better governance of public goods and services.
She said STAR-Ghana thematic areas of focus, based on the political economy analysis that indicated areas that would lead to the greatest impact, were basic education quality, rural health service, agricultural value chains, urban sanitation and the emerging oil and gas sector with gender equity and social inclusion being cross-cutting issues.
She said the purpose of the convention was to provide a platform where STAR-Ghana with Grant Partners and stakeholders could reflect on emerging national issues, exchange information and glean opportunities for networking for better development results through joined efforts to ensure a transparent, accountable management of public goods and service.
Ms Adams added that STAR-Ghana has consequently awarded $4 million to 45 organizations, mainly civil society organizations at national and sub-national levels and “this is aimed at increasing accountability and responsiveness of key stakeholders, particularly the Electoral Commission (EC), the Judiciary, Police and security service and political parties.”
The chairman of the convention, Prof Akilakpa Sawyer, said the use of abusive and insulting language in the political discourse was becoming serious and called on the civil society to partner with political parties to do away with it.
He said it was appropriate for every individual, civil society group and NGOs to observe and monitor election, adding that “this must be done in a professional and fair and transparent way.
STAR-Ghana is a project aimed at strengthening Transparency, Accountability and Responsiveness in Ghana.
