Tag Archives: National Peace Council

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NDC sets 6 conditions for peace pact ahead of 2024 Elections

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The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has laid out six conditions that must be met before the party agrees to a peace pact ahead of the 2024 elections.

The National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, detailed these conditions at a meeting with the National Peace Council’s Committee for the Code of Conduct on Vigilantism and Election-Related Violence in Accra on Tuesday (August 20, 2024).

He stated that the party would not commit to any peace engagement unless the conditions were met.

The conditions include the government’s full implementation of the recommendations of the Ayawaso West Wuogon election commission of inquiry, the prosecution of those responsible for the killings of eight people during the 2020 elections, and the prosecution of individuals involved in the illegal printing of approximately one million extra ballot papers during the 2020 elections.

Other conditions include President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo publicly declaring on a state platform that he will respect the outcome of the 2024 elections, full disclosure on the missing equipment from the Electoral Commission, and a requirement for the President, the Inspector-General of Police, the Chief Justice, the National Security Coordinator, and the Attorney General to all sign the pact.

Mr. Nketia stressed that the NDC was not ready to “let bygones be bygones” and stated, “We will not be part of any engagement unless you bring together all the parties.”

Correct wrongs

The Director of Communications of the NDC, Kakra Essamuah, urged the Peace Council to encourage the Electoral Commission (EC) to perform its duties professionally and correct the wrongs of the previous election.

He stated that such admonishments should be made publicly to send the right signals that could lead to a change in the conduct of the EC and ensure a peaceful election. “If you want to correct someone who did wrong publicly, you have to do it publicly,” he said.

The Deputy Minority Leader of Parliament, Armah Kofi Buah, asserted that peace can only follow justice and called on the Council to press institutions responsible for delivering justice to do so, ensuring that peace prevails.

“Peace comes after justice, but as it stands now, there has not been justice, and without justice, the Peace Council cannot be effective,” he said.

Benefit of the doubt

The Chairman of the Committee, Maulvi Mohammed Bin Salih, urged the NDC leadership to give the committee the chance and “breathing space” to operate as it employs all strategies to ensure that all stakeholders involved in the elections commit to a peaceful outcome.

“Give us the benefit of the doubt, and the breaks you have applied, remove them a little bit,” he said.

He noted that members of the committee, drawn from various institutions including the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Armed Forces, civil society, and political parties, were committed to ensuring a peaceful election but would need the cooperation of all actors to succeed.

“For us to be able to do that, we will need some amount of goodwill and trust from the members of the committee. With that goodwill and trust, we will be very much encouraged to do the best that we can,” he said.

The 13-member committee, inaugurated last month, is meeting various stakeholders ahead of the election to ensure they commit to a peaceful process. The committee was established to oversee the implementation of the code of conduct that was signed in 2020 in preparation for this year’s election.

 

Source: Graphic

News, Politics

You’ve become an extension of NPP – Chris Dugan tackles Peace Council

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Chris Doughan, one of the spokespersons for the main opposition NDC has harshly descended on the National Peace Council (NPC) over its “double standards.

The vociferous NDC communicator who was speaking on Inside Politics programme on TV XYZ indicated that the NPC had no moral right to admonish political parties to use peaceful means to conduct their activities before and during the elections.

Recently the NPC advised political parties to avoid hate speech and the use of intemperate language in the 2024 electioneering.

The Board Chairman of the NPC, Rev. Dr Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, that would ensure that the country remained peaceful after this year’s elections so that the citizenry could go about their businesses without difficulties.

Rev. Dr Adu-Gyamfi made the call at the 2024 first quarter meeting with political parties under the Political Party Trust Building Programme in Accra last Wednesday.

However, the NDC believes the National Peace Council was quite dormant when brutalities marred some elections in Ayawaso West Wuogon in 2019 and Techiman South in the Bono East region during the 2020 general elections.

For instance, the National Women Organizer of the NDC, Dr Hannah Bisiw, who was at the NPC meeting chastised two Board over its silence when violence disrupted some elections held under the Akufo-Addo administration.

Reacting to the subject of sticking to peaceful ways of conducting political activities in the country, Chris Doughan took a swipe at the NPC.

He said the NDC “would not sign any peace agreement by the peace council” because it was quiet when it’s voice was needed most.

According to Chris, the NPC is an appendage of the governing NPP, explaining that the Council was vocal under the erstwhile NDC administration but has gone silent under Akufo-Addo.

“By the way. change is coming and the NDC will prosecute perpetrators of the Ayawaso West Wuogon By-election violence.

As for the Peace Council, if it wants peace ahead of the elections, they should first deal with the Ayawaso West Wuogon By-election violence.”

On signing a peace pact, he quizzed, “How can Satan prepare a contract for Jesus to sign?”

” NDC won’t sign any agreement. Peace Council can’t be trusted,” and added, ” Unemployment is a national security threat. So if National Peace Council is concerned about the country’s Peace they should rather tell Akufo-Addo to tackle unemployment.”

 

Source: Myxyzonline.com

News, Politics, Topstory

NDC returns to IPAC meetings after National Peace Council’s intervention

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The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has rejoined the Inter Party Advisory Commitee (IPAC) meetings with the Electoral Commission.

The decision follows an intervention by the National Peace Council, NPC at a meeting held at Peduase in the Eastern Region on Thursday, December 14.
The stock-taking conference, attended by other stakeholders, was to assess institutional progress towards building the required resilience for credible, transparent, and peaceful general elections in 2024.

Myxyzonline has learnt NDC’s return was based on condition that IPAC maintains its consensus status whereby decisions twill be influenced by the consideration of all parties in the interest of Ghana.
Prior to the official announcement by the NDC, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Jean Adukwei Mensa, made an appeal to the NDC to rejoin IPAC.

She admitted that the party’s contribution was invaluable to the democratic process of the country.
“I would like to use this opportunity to invite the leadership of the National Democratic Congress to our IPAC meetings. We do realise that since 2021, NDC has not been present at our IPAC meetings. We miss them, we miss their fire. I extend an olive branch and in the interest of peace of our country. We invite them to IPAC,” she said.

In response, the National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia expressed his party’s commitment towards efforts at shaping the country’s democratic and electoral processes.
He however emphasized the need for the C must ensure that IPAC assumes its original “consensus building” status towards the implementation of electoral reforms.

“On behalf of the Party, we accept the appeal from the National Peace Council that we should consider returning to IPAC, but we want to return to IPAC and not any other forum”. – he explained
Mr Nketia added. “The other side is for us to work to make sure that IPAC returns to its consensus building days…the issues that blocked our return should be dealt with before our next IPAC meeting,”
He also expressed concern with the EC’s efforts towards making the Ghana Card the sole identification document for the Commission’s proposed continuous voter registration exercise.
The NDC argued that the move had the potential to disenfranchise about one million voters, a position the EC had debunked.

“We will support it if everyone had the Ghana Card,” Mr Nketia said.

Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Ms Kathleen Addy, in a brief remark, said the 2024 Election was peculiar in the wake of political instability in the West Africa Sub-region.

“We are more vulnerable than before. We must work with each other and assure each other so that we can arrive at the elections and beyond the elections in peace and intact,” she said.

The NDC had boycotted IPAC meetings since March 2020 after the party expressed displeasure about the posture of the Electoral Commission (EC).
The Party had accused the Commission of failing to take into consideration decisions at IPAC meetings as part of its electoral reforms.

Myxyzonline