Reverend Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, a former General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, has expressed concern over the failure of successive governments to tackle electoral violence effectively.
He pointed out that Ghana’s elections have consistently been marred by violence, with the most recent polls leading to eight deaths and numerous injuries.
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. You don’t get somebody from NDC [either].”
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