Ghanaians urged to respect the electoral laws of the state

Accra, Aug 31, GNA - The International Fellowships Programme Alumni Association of Ghana (IFPAAG) has urged Ghanaians to respect electoral laws of the state and report to the appropriate institutions for redress of any issues that may arise during the December elections.

This was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of a Peace Forum organized by the IFPAAG with various stakeholders including political parties, non governmental organizations/civil societies, security personnel, religious groups, and the media.

Dubbed: “Global Peace in the 21st Century; the Role of the Social Justice Advocate,” the forum was part of the Association's move to ensuring peaceful election 2012.

It said: “We encourage all political parties to respect the code of conduct they subscribed to themselves and desist from the use of divisive and intemperate language.”

The communiqué urged supporters of the various political parties to refrain from ridiculing losers and be modest in celebrating their victory to avoid inciting violence.

According to the communiqué, all political parties were to employ dialogue-based approaches like inter-party committees to address disagreements at the national, district and constituency levels.

Stakeholders at the forum stressed on the need for security agencies to be vigilant and take appropriate action to serve as a deterrent in order to ensure fairness in the election and also asked the judiciary to be swift in dealing with electoral petitions.

The Communiqué encouraged the media to be professional and adhere to their code of ethics in their reportage during the elections.

“All Ghanaians should be promoters of peace as ensuring a peaceful election is a shared responsibility; we commit ourselves as social justice advocates to ensuring a peaceful election 2012,” it said.

GNA