Madam Elsa Mouelhi-Rondeau the Counseller for Political Affairs of High Commission of Canada to Ghana has reminded Ghanaians on the need to embrace inclusive Political Processes and Governance.
She said they were the Foundation of Healthy Democracy and a Condition of Sustainable Development and the reason why Canada strived to support the meaningful participation of women, youth, Person With Disabilities and other members of marginalized groups in governance and in peace processes.
She said inclusion brought a diversity of perspectives and approaches to identifying and solving problems and that was essential for peace democracy and economic progress at the family level the community level and for the nation.
According to her, youth political participations and empowerment resulted in tangible gains for democracy including greater responsibility to citizen’s needs, intergenerational justice new and innovative mechanism for political arrangement and increased co-operation across stakeholders.
She was delivering an address during a post-election stakeholder’s engagement organized by Empowerment for Development in Collaboration with National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and funded by Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) at Yendi in the northern region.
She said it was important to take time after the election to draw lessons from the experience and to continue working to ensure future elections were even more peaceful and inclusive and that was why a post -election event was so important.
Ms Zuweira Yakubu, Project Lead for Empowerment for Development (E4D) indicated that E4D in collaboration with the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) successfully implemented a comprehensive peace building project aimed at fostering harmony during Ghana’s 2024 Presidential and parliamentary elections and the initiative which spanned the districts of Yendi Karaga,Mion and Gushegu played a political role in ensuring a peaceful electoral process with high voter turnout and no reported violence.
Ms Zuweira said activities undertaken included training of youth Village Saving and Loans
Association (YVSLA) for two-days with 30 existing YVSLA comprising 500.
She said their achievements was their peaceful election across the four Districts they carried out their exercise and the purpose of the post-election reconciliation and peace dialogue to promote healing, restored trust and ensured long-term stability in the aftermath of an election.
She reminded them that the dialogue served several key functions such as fostering national unity, healing and reducing tensions, building trust in democratic institutions, preventing violence and conflict, promoting political and social inclusion, strengthening democracy and good governance among others.
Mr Osman Kassim the Yendi Municipal Director of National Commission for Civic Education
(NCCE) who presented the topic on political violence in Ghana and addressing grievances related to the electoral processes indicated that in the Yendi Municipality although occurrences had been mostly limited there was still the need for proactive measures.
Mr Kassim said the recent elections in Ghana had led to heightened tension and violence in some areas with young people ransacking and taking over government property due to political discontent and party affiliations.
He said areas like Tamale Metropolis and Savelegu in the northern region witnessed acts of youth vandalism, threatening the stability and development of their communities.
He said the theme: for the post-election stakeholder’s engagement “political violence in Ghana and addressing grievances related to the electoral process” was appropriate and reminded them that causes of political violence in Ghana included poverty and unemployment among youth, institutional weaknesses, perception of bias Electoral Commission partisan polarization and zero-sum politics.
He expressed his appreciation to the High Commission of Canada to Ghana, Empowerment for
Development for their collaboration in organizing the programme for number of stakeholders, political party representatives, the youth women groups among others.
GNA
