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.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Citi News, Reverend Opuni-Frimpong urged the government to act on the recommendations made following the violence during the 2020 elections.

“Sometimes you ask yourself, why are our leaders not worried about these electoral violence and electoral deaths? Our hands are so bloody and we must be worried as a country. It is not only in the 2020 [general elections], almost all the elections, there is a record of death.

“But again, the recent one is the eight that we recorded in 2020. For me, going into the 2024 election, if the government and the Ghana Police Service can give Ghanaians evidence that at least even if we have not come to completion [of investigations], the process is [ongoing and] we know those people we are prosecuting, they will add to the peace process. We must find those people who killed the eight people and prosecute them, and if need be, even find compensation for those they have left behind.”

He further urged political parties to take any utterances that have the potential to incite violence seriously and address them promptly.

“The parties themselves, they have mature men and women in those parties who must, you know, behind the scenes, close door meetings, heal the wounds among themselves, and who must talk to their own people.

“We must have people in NPP who will just talk to people that this is not the NPP we want. We need people in NDC who are behind the scenes, even if they must come public and condemn their own.

“It is very worrying that when their people come out, you can’t get a single person in the NPP going public that, yes, you are part of us, but this comment is unacceptable.”