United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa, Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, has said there is a high demand for credible, free, and fair elections in Ghana.
According to him, this is due to the impressive elections track-record the country has carved since adopting democratic practices in 1992.
Speaking during an interaction with media executives and editors in Accra, November 30, 2020, he said the country cannot deviate from this, regardless of the existing challenges.
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While citing some regional contexts which have preceded the country elections he said, “within that regional context also and in fact international context we’re holding our elections on December 7 to be followed by Niger and I should say that there’s very high expectation of Ghana because of our track record.”
Dr Ibn Chambas added; “We have a track-record of delivering, holding peaceful, credible elections. This year’s elections will be the eighth since the Fourth Republic. And all of them have been known to be by and large free and fair, credible.”
Though he notes that the seven previous elections of Ghana have not been devoid of challenges, Dr. Chambas said they have been comparatively impressive.
He further remarked that the country has amongst other things improved progressively in all the previous elections, thus, there is hope for a better outcome than what has happened in other neighbouring countries.
“Of course, with logistical and other challenges, the key fact about Ghana is that they have improved progressively and each election cycle has seen significant improvement upon the previous one and this has come to be expected of Ghana by the international community…the one election that there’s so much hope in is the December 7 elections in Ghana,” Dr. Chambas remarked.
He further threw caution to major stakeholders in the polls, including the Electoral Commission, security agencies, and the media to maintain discipline and transparency to ensure a peaceful poll.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
