The Inspector General of police, George Akufo Dampare has warned leaders of political parties who may be resentful by the processes being rolled out by the Electoral Commission for the exhibition of the Voters’ Register to resort to due process in addressing their concerns.
He said the Election Security Taskforce will not indulge any political acts that have the aptness to mar the electoral processes and the peace of the country.
On Monday August 19, the Electoral Commission engaged the Election Security Task Force which comprises of the Military, Police, Immigration and Fire services.
The engagement was to fashion out ways to maintain confidence in the security services detailed for the upcoming voter exhibition exercise and other electoral processes leading to the December 7 polls.
Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission in charge of Corporate Service, Dr Eric Bossman Asare said the Commission is positioned to organize free, fair and transparent elections.
“This year is also perhaps the most important election as far as the country is concerned. But the assurance the Electoral Commission can give to the Election Security Task Force is that, as a Commission we are committed to a very peaceful process, ” he said.
“We are committed to a credible process. We are committed to a very transparent, free and fair process. As a result of that all the necessary measures that must be put in place to ensure that as a country, we witness another credible election has been done,” he said.
On his part, the Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akufo Dampare expressed the preparedness of the security taskforce to safeguard a peaceful election.
He, however, cautioned aggrieved political parties to resort to due process to address their concerns other than foment trouble.
The IGP indicated that, “going forward, in terms of the voter exhibition exercise starting from tomorrow, we want to give the assurance that across the 38,622 Polling stations we will be there to manage any situation with de-escalation mindset.”
“We also want to use this opportunity to urge all the stakeholders, especially the political parties that all the issues and concerns they may have concerning the voter exhibition process, they should ensure to use due process of engagement within the law to handle every situation. We don’t want to see where anybody will make an attempt to take the law into his or her own hands. If that happens, we will work within the law to deal with the situation,” he cautioned.
The IGP has meanwhile scheduled daily engagement with the political parties at the districts every morning before the commencement of the voter exhibition exercise.
The one-week exercise will end on August 27, 2024.
