Election 2024: NDC justifies decision not to sign Peace Pact
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has justified its decision to refrain from signing a peace pact aimed at promoting peaceful conduct among political parties in the upcoming December 7 polls.
According to the NDC’s Deputy General Secretary, Mustapha Gbande, the Peace Council, which is leading the initiative, has not created a balanced and inclusive atmosphere conducive to fair engagement among all political parties.
Despite the party’s flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, publicly reaffirming his commitment to peace at the launch of the National Peace Campaign, Mr Gbande believes the Peace Council has not engaged with all stakeholders enough or addressed issues critical to ensuring electoral fairness.
“Institutions of states such as the police, the Electoral Commission, the military, national security. All of these individual institutions play a role, a frontal role, to ensure that they actually are referees to everything that is been done for peace to prevail. NDC is committed to peace. President Mahama is committed to peace.
“But as to whether we believe that the Peace Council’s peace pact is something that has gotten to a standard involving all stakeholders. We don’t think that the Peace Council has done a good job. We don’t think that they have helped this country because people have died out of the 2020 election and they did nothing,” he said.
It would be recalled that the Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, laid down six conditions which would make the party commit to a peace pact as the country approaches the upcoming December 7 elections.
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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 are President 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.