The Ameer and Missionary in charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Ghana, Maulvi Dr Wahab Adam, has expressed optimism that this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections will be peaceful.

He said despite pockets of violence that were witnessed in some constituencies during the recent biometric voters registration exercise, the country would still go through orderly elections in December.

He was addressing the 50th Upper West Conference of the Mission in Wa.

It was on the theme: “The role of the Ahmadi Muslim towards peaceful and transparent elections”.

Maulvi Dr Adam said participation in the processes that brought governments into power was not only a civic responsibility but also a religious duty for Muslims.

He appealed to political parties, the security agencies, the National Peace Council, the Electoral Commission, the media, traditional rulers, religious bodies and all those institutions that were constitutionally mandated to help organise and supervise elections to ensure that they did whatever was humanly possible to make this year’s elections free, fair, transparent and peaceful.

He said if through the actions and inaction of those institutions the country was plunged into chaos, posterity would not forgive them, since God had endowed the country with resources that could make it one of the greatest in the world.

For that reason, Maulvi Dr Adam appealed for tolerance, accommodation and mutual trust and respect, despite our political, ethnic and religious diversity, “so that together we build a united, peaceful and prosperous nation of which we and our future generations will be justifiably proud”.

The Upper West Regional Minister, Alhaji Amidu Suleimana, said the government had demonstrated enough commitment towards peaceful and transparent elections and called on other stakeholders to follow suit.

He was happy that the mission had demonstrated, through numerous interventions, its concern for national development and, therefore, urged its leadership to ensure that its members embraced the clarion call for peace and transparency in the 2012 general election.

He recalled that over the years the mission had been actively engaged in various socio-economic activities, in addition to its core responsibility for the spiritual uplift of the people.

“Indeed, the mission has played a major role in the fields of education, health and agriculture by providing various infrastructure and administering quite a number of institutions in these areas,” he added

Alhaji Suleimana gave an assurance that the government, for its part, would continue to pursue its role in development and support efforts in that direction.