Professor Yunus Dumbe, the Vice President of the US-Ghana Alumni Association (USHAA), has admonished all the Presidential Candidates and their followings to brace themselves to accept the outcome of the December elections.
He said their acceptance of the outcome of the election will be in the supreme interest of the nation.
The USGHAA is a network of alumni from US State Department Exchange Programmes comprising participants of Fulbright Scholarships and the International Visitor Leadership Programme.
“Elections are not do or die affair,” he stated, and called on the political parties to also avoid behaviours and sentimental utterances that could inflame passion, trigger political violence and disturb the beauty of the December 7 polls in the electioneering.
Prof Dumbe gave the advice when interacting with a section of the media in Techiman in the Bono East Region on the side-lines of a football gala match in line with the implementation of a project being undertaken by the Association.
On the theme: “Empowering Ghana through Voter Education for Peaceful Election”, the project titled “Ballot for Peace project”, Prof Dumbe explained that the project sought to create a peaceful co-existence and harmonious environment before, during and after the December 7 general elections.
The implementation of the project, being funded by the US Embassy in Accra, further sought to sensitise the youth on the significance of elections as well as the need for the youth to contribute to a strengthened national peace and social cohesion.
Prof Dumbe urged the political parties and independent candidates in the elections to remain decorous in the electioneering by conducting issue-based political campaigns for the electorates to make informed decisions when they went to the polls.
He also urged the electorates to be guarded and not allow politicians to influence or buy their conscience with money and gift to get their votes, but rather ensured that they conducted critical analysis into their political party manifestos and thereby make informed decisions.
Earlier, Mr Fred Frimpong, a Civic Education Officer of the National Commission for Civic Education took the participants through electoral offences, and the 1992 Constitutional Instrument establishing the Electoral Commission.
He advised political party agents and the various presidential and parliamentary candidates contesting the elections to remain vigilant at the polling stations and well observed the voting and counting processes.
Reverend Prince Owusu Asaku, the Chairman of the Bono East Regional Peace Council, advised Ghanaians to remain law abiding citizens and urged everybody to contribute to preserving the prevailing peace of the nation.
GNA
