Petition: A Call To Intervene To Save Ghana’s Enviable Democracy From Experiencing Electoral Conflict

THROUGH
Charles Albani
United Nations Resident Coordinator Accra, Ghana

TO
HIS Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres Secretary-General

United Nations Headquarters New York City
Your Excellency,
We are writing to you as a policy advocacy group and concerned citizen of Ghana, „Chapter (1) clause 1 of the 1992 constitution of Ghana entrench the sovereignty of the state in its people, therefore no citizens should lose his/her life for exercising this civic right, hence it is our collective constitutional duties to ensure that this sovereign will is well protected and preserved for the general good of the people.

In Pursuant to United Nations General Assembly(UNGA) resolution 377A, “Uniting for Peace” resolution of November 1950, the General Assembly may take action if the Security Council fails to act, owing to the negative vote of a Permanent Member, in a case where there appears to be a threat to, or breach of peace, or an act of aggression. The Assembly can consider the matter immediately in order to make recommendations to UN members for collective measures, including the use of armed force when necessary in order to maintain, or restore, international peace and security.

The Charter empowers the Secretary-General to bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion, may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security (Article 99) which empowers him to use his good offices as may be described as steps taken publicly and in private, draw upon his independence, impartiality and integrity, to prevent international disputes from arising, escalating or spreading therefore the need to call for your intervention since the above evidence is evidently clear and persistently demonstrated, a threat of peace and breach of constitutional provision on electoral laws in Ghana and in Ecowas protocols, aggression by vigilante groups making official state security powerless and inactive.

Ghana will go to the poll to elect a President and Members of Parliament in December 7, 2024.This will be the country’s Nineth successive general election since the resumption of multiparty democracy in 1992 and will not be a sit-and-watch event as the presidential contest will pit incumbent Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia who is now the flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) against former President John Dramani Mahama of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC and others.

Ghana’s elections have historically been tense but the 2024 general election seems to be more crucial considering the degree of atrocities, breaches, aggressions and human right violations that has been associated with this regime; which makes it more susceptible to violence.

As the campaign gets underway there are clear indications that the upcoming process will see more violence.

Your Excellency, as a Civil Society Organization and concerned citizens of Ghana, I wish to draw the attention of the United Nations (UN) to incidence that has characterized our recent electoral activities in Ghana.

In reference to 2020 general election there were act of violence such as reported shootings, assaults, intimidation and beating of outspoken opposition Member of Parliament perpetrated by militia groups levied by political actors in government resulting in injuries and deaths of innocent citizens at the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency by-election on January 31, 2019, purposefully to influence the process and outcome of the election.

A commission of inquiry was constituted and recommendations were made to prosecute those perpetrators of the act but the President of the Republic of Ghana issued a white paper to reject the findings and recommendations, disregarding the rule of law which points to the direction of conflict. Therefore, if steps are not taken to mitigate the tension, we may lose our stable sustainable democracy through electoral conflict since the government of the day is determined to stay in power at all cost hence all his programs are geared towards rigging of elections by destabilizing the peace.

Your Excellency, the recent compilation of the new voter register was confronted with series of violence at the registration centres resulting in the stabbing, burning of motorbikes and firing of gunshots by unidentified gunmen believed to be deployed by some members of the ruling government to intimidate and assault innocent citizens thereby disrupting the registration process. This can be described as worst atrocities in the history of Ghana’s democracy.

The inhumane attack on the opposition National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Cape Coast North by the New Patriotic Party thugs, and incessant attack on journalists by hoodlums of the ruling government, while many sustain several degrees of injury. These are clear evidence of threat to peace which requires your intervention.

The Biometric Verification Device (BVD) and Biometric Verification Registration (BVR) kits that forms the integral part of our election process were stolen at the Electoral Commission’s (EC) headquarters, raises doubts about the fairness and transparency of the December 7, 2024 general election.

This disproportionate attacks and ill treatment meted to citizens and member of parliament during the voter registration exercise demonstrates the government determination to suppress all forms of dissent and people’s right to vote(Suppression of Vote);this can be described as shadow of what will happen in the December 7,2024 general election therefore demands a strong international response, considering the gravity of violations, the alarming degradation in the situation and the importance of acting swiftly to prevent further serious violations in the election.

Your Excellency, the custom division of the Ghana Revenue Authority intercepted live ammunitions, 53 pistols, 74 magazines and Pc hoster at the Golden Jubilee Terminal at Tema port and incident were 1,800 rounds of ammunition were intercepted by the Bawku Divisional Police command at Binguri in the Binguri District of the upper east region of the republic of Ghana which has greatly heightened public fears and insecurity in the country as the nation gets closer to December 7,2024 general election.

Gearing up for a high-stake electoral contest on December 7, 2024 has been fraught with tension and if not well managed will lead to conflict and may easily jeopardized our sustainable democracy, development and security in Ghana particularly in West Africa as a whole. Both the NDC and the NPP have engaged in bellicose and inflammatory rhetoric, accusing each other of undermining the fairness of the electoral process. As a result, procedural disputes have become increasingly politicized, with politicians questioning the integrity and competence of the Electoral Commission (EC) and the judiciary who recently ruled all cases in favor of the ruling government. The activities of irregular security groups have increasely reduced the voters‟ trust in the electoral process that pose a threat to peace and formally undermines the electoral rules which exacerbates the general climate of insecurity.

Democratic failure in Ghana would be a let-down for the continent, particularly on the part of the African Union (AU) and European Union (EU), which has devoted substantial resources in financial and technical for initiatives aimed at promoting democracy in Africa.

On the part of the European Union (EU) Ghana can only commend you for your contribution to our success for the past three decades through funding and technical assistance, we urge you to continue supporting us.

Your remarkable achievement includes a total budgetary support of 87 million Euros(587.5 Million) to Ghana‟s economy from 2008 to 2024 and many other assistance such as funding of election since 1992 up to 2016, and other European Union projects doted across the country until the current president advised the European Union (EU) to withdraw their Aid (Ghana beyond Aid) because the country is of age and further admonished the continental body to withdraw their observers due to reason best known to him.

It is eminent that your withdrawal would pose a great threat to African beacon of democracy; therefore we call on you to join hands with the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU) and the Ecowas to ensure that our peace is preserved, since democratic challenges in Ghana would thus result in a major setback to the global body‟s efforts.

We demand that you intervene to safe Ghana young democracy from experiencing electoral conflict as happened in Côte d‟Ivoire, where running battles sparked by contestations about election results were fought up to the country‟s borders with Burkina Faso which led to loss of lives and damage to property until the intervention of French Military, and in Rwanda, where génocidaires instigated clashes to settle scores right up to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

We think if mitigative measures were taken to safe guide those country’s elections, those incidents wouldn’t have happened. This thing is common in Africa and has contributed immensely to the continent lacking behind in terms of economic development which has kept our people in poverty and hardship for far too long.

This is the appropriate time for global and continental communities such as United Nation Security Council, European Union(EU), African Union(AU) and the Ecowas to change their approach to proactive and prevention rather than waiting for the incident to happen, destroy lives and property before we spend huge sums of tax payer’s monies to stop war and conflict.

Given the high tension and mutual suspicions presently among stakeholders in Ghana‟s political environment, we wish to call on the United Nations to support our petition, to use your protocols and mechanism to:

• Dispatch a fact finding and mediation team to Ghana to engage with the stakeholders especially political parties, electoral commission and Civil Society Organizations as part of pre-emptive measures targeted at preventing the potential plunge of the country into unnecessary conflict, confusion and anarchy. Early warnings is an essential component of prevention hence this petition. We would like you to monitor developments around the country to detect threats to international peace and security, thereby enabling the Security Council and the Secretary-General to carry out prevention action.

• Deploy missions across the country comprising Political Affairs Officers, Human right officials and Security Council to monitor and protect the citizenry during and after the election. The presence of skilled envoy can prevent the escalation of tension and would address increased militia violence in the country.

• Deploy your mission to observe and verify the legitimacy of the various stages of the electoral process and the compliance of the electoral authorities with the electoral regulations in order to promote confidence in the process and overall credibility of the December 7, 2024 general election in Ghana.

• Deploy your military to help stabilize the security situation in our country as a way to contribute to creating a conducive environment for holding the December 7,2024 general election,

• Deploy UN military to Ghana to conduct patrols to ensure that voters can exercise their democratic right without fear of violence.

• Deploy United Nations observers to help build public confidence in the honesty of our electoral process and also help promote, protect the civil and political rights of all participants in the December 7, 2024 election. This can deter manipulation, fraud and expose such problems if they do occur. This as a result will build trust in the democratic process and enhances the legitimacy of the party that emerges from election.

• Building the capacity of electoral management bodies to support effective elections and set up appropriate conflict resolution mechanisms to establish confidence in the electoral process among the public and stakeholders.

It is our hope that you do everything possible in cooperation with African Union (AU), Ecowas and political stakeholders in Ghana to prevent any possible disruption of the electoral process and urged all to work closely in this regard.

In interest of good governance, we further call on African Union (AU) and Ecowas to strengthen their governance structures by enacting treaties and protocols that will make Africa Continental body more effective and vibrant to deal with matters that deter the progress of the mineral rich zones and bring to book leaders who might want to manipulate the system in the detriment on our greater goal. This is exactly so when US invaded Libya and supported rebel groups to destabilize that beautiful nation whiles Africa Union look on. It also took the intervention of

France military to bring law and order to Ivory Coast as referred early whiles our leaders look on helplessly.

We trust that prevention and removal of threats to peace, and the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of peace, are an inherent part of your noble mandate. We are confident United Nations will put in place mechanism to safe Ghana from experiencing electoral conflict.

Thank you Signed
EDEM ANANSAH EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
EVANS AMOO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Cc
H.E AMBASSADOR DIANA ACCONCIA
HEAD OF EUROPEAN UNION DELEGATION TO GHANA
H.E MOHAMED OULD GHAZOUANI CHAIRMAN OF AFRICAN UNION (AU)

H.E JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA
FLAG BEARER OF NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS (NDC)

H.E NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFFO ADDO FLAG BEARER NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY (NPP)

THE CHAIRPERSON
ELECTORAL COMMISSION OF GHANA (EC) TO ALL MEDIA HOUSES