5 days ago
16 ARTICLE AD
The Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has condemned the incidents and acts of hooliganism, vandalism, storming, raiding and occupation of public facilities and offices, ejection and threatened ejection of public officials from their offices or official residences, and similar disorderly conduct reported across the country in the aftermath of the December 7, 2024 general election.
“CDD-Ghana is aware that a similar pattern of post-election disorder and violence perpetrated by partisans of the victorious party has characterised previous turnover elections in the country during this Fourth Republic.
This regrettable fact, however, cannot excuse or justify the latest spate of post-election violence. Rather, the Centre is concerned that this pattern of post-election partisan hooliganism, left unchecked and unpunished from one turnover election to the next, would become an ugly feature of our political culture, undermining efforts to mitigate our winner-take-all politics and threatening the peace and stability of our Republic,” a statement issued by the CDD in Accra yesterday has stated.
It was in this regard, that the Centre called on the law enforcement authorities to apply the laws of Ghana firmly to arrest this growing tendency. In the same vein, we urge the newly-installed Government of President John Dramani Mahama, in keeping with its pledge and mandate to Reset Governance and Politics in Ghana, to send a clear message to all Ghanaians, without regard to party, that this growing and disturbing tendency in our electoral politics will no longer be tolerated.
At the minimum, the CDD indicated that government should do nothing to hinder the leadership and personnel of the Ghana Police Service and the law enforcement authorities, generally from dealing lawfully with those persons arrested in connection with the recent or ongoing post-election hooliganism and vandalism.
“We recall that similar resoluteness and consensus on the part of the political class to deal with the related problem of party-aligned political vigilantes, culminating in the passage of the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act (2019) has helped to stem or mitigate that dangerous tendency in our electoral politics,” it stated.
It observed that post-election partisan hooliganism attract enhanced criminal penalties, similar to those prescribed in the Vigilantism Act for offenders of that law. We propose that future Transition Teams, following turnover elections, prioritise addressing and containing post-election partisan violence and hooliganism as a critical component of the transition process.
“As the recently-concluded elections show, Ghana continues to make important strides in our quest to build a stable democratic order. The orderly conduct of the December 7, 2024 general elections reflects the steady, incremental progress we have made collectively in our democratisation journey since 1992.”
The statement also noted that the CDD will continue to work harder to improve upon the performance and quality of our democracy by ensuring that our elections and their aftermath are free of acts of violence and harm to life, limb, and properties.
BY TIMES REPORTER
