Governance, Elections Can’t Be Stopped

Varied factors account for the interesting times in which we are today. While some are logical, others are conundrums and therefore too difficult or even impossible to disentangle.

We are in a democracy in which a constitution gives direction as to how the country is to be managed.

At the end of a government's four-year term, the people must go back to the ballot box to vote to either give a fresh mandate to the President and his team or drop him or her. There is no alternative to this arrangement.

Elections must be preceded by laid-down procedures such as registration of voters, exhibition of the register so compiled, none of which can be ignored in the scheme of things.

Enter a pandemic which has not spared any part of the world regimes, with lockdowns having been applied in different countries only for these to be eased after a while.

At a certain time in the history of a country or even the world, some decisions must be taken, especially against the backdrop of the circumstances.

Regardless of the circumstances a country finds itself in governance must go on as well as other activities of life.

In the wake of the pandemic, Ghana has faced an unusual circumstance of having an election to deal with at the end of the year because the first term of the ruling party ends then.

Others have accomplished the task of managing elections even under Covid-19. Why not Ghana?

There have been a few dissenting voices, most of them steeped in subtle partisanship about the countrywide registration exercise the manner of their articulation leaving much to be desired.

A group of health personnel emerged last week and like others which popped up and soon evaporated it wants the ongoing registration exercise to be stopped because of the Covid-19.

The group, said to be made up of doctors, nurses and other health personnel could not convince the country or even the EC as to what alternatively should replace an election.

If they had called for the shutting down of the country with convincing premises we could have considered the call serious and worthy of being listened to. Not so however.

It is unfeasible to shut down a country because of a disease of the magnitude of the coronavirus. Markets are operating, state institutions are doing same as are other departments of life.

What Ghana needs today is a massive education of the populace about the importance of the WHO/government hygiene protocols? And what better crop of people to undertake this task than the health personnel their unparalleled understanding of virus putting them ahead of others in this direction.

Since the group has enough time of its busy schedules in the wards it could head for the various  markets and the lorry stations and insist on the observation of the protocols failing which it could call for the shutting down of the country.

In the history of pandemics the world over none has ever informed the shutting down of countries indefinitely.

To even state that the managers of the elections in the country should be held responsible for the uptick in Covid-19 cases does not sound sensible. To think that thought originated from such a group of professionals is mind-boggling.

Shutting down a country would exact more mortalities than coronavirus and so our dear young professionals should concentrate on the ward rounds and allow others to carry on with their occupations.

The overwhelming patronage of the countrywide registration says it all about how much Ghanaians appreciate the tenets of democracy.