The Ghana Catholic Bishops’Conference is calling for calm in the thick of the rising unrest in the aftermath of the declaration of the Presidential and parliamentary elections result.
In a statement dated Wednesday, December 16, 2020, the leadership of the Bishops’ Conference noted with concern the increasing violence that has clouded the 2020 general elections and called on the leadership of the two major political to help restore peace in the country.
Despite the success and peaceful conduct of the elections, the Conference emphasized that they have “have also noted with concern the loss of lives and injuries suffered by some people in constituencies such as Awutu Senya East, Odododiodio, Ablekuma Central, Bono East and Savelugu”.
The Bishops appealed to the two major political parties and their supporters “to exercise restraint and avoid all forms of violence in the aftermath of the declaration of the Presidential and Parliamentary results by the Electoral Commission”.
Legal Redress
The Bishops said the situation could be resolved through the appropriate legal quarters thereby urging the affected parties to direct their grievances to the appropriate authorities.
They said “having monitored recent developments on the
political scene after the declaration of the results, we wish to humbly appeal to all who have issues with the results to kindly address these issues through the legitimate procedures for redress”.
On stakeholder engagement, they charged the electoral commission to play a vibrant role in ensuring that all affected parties are duly engages and addressed.
“We equally wish to urge the Electoral Commission to keep engaging all the political parties to ensure that all outstanding electoral issues and grievances are dealt with in the interest of the country”, they said.
Exhibit Maturity
They admonishes political parties who unfortunately fell prey to exhibit maturity and handle issues in a sane manner that would sustain the peace of the nation.
They emphasized that “in every competition there are bound to be winners and losers, we wish to call on all stakeholders to exhibit maturity in accepting both defeat and victory. In this way, reactions to any of the two conditions would be measured, modest and charitable towards one another”.
Professionalism
The Bishops called on the security agencies in the country to employ professionalism in the exercise of their duties in the aftermath of the declaration of the Presidential and Parliamentary results in order to protect life and property emphasizing the need to work to maintain the peace and stability that we have always enjoyed as a nation.
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Source: Agnus-Dei Media