Ibrahim Iddrisu, Nanton District Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has said the 2024 elections should not be about butchering one another but one that embraces divergent views and encourages tolerance and harmony.

He said elections were about ballots and not bullets, emphasising that the public must desist from using violence to register their displeasure and choose peace, negotiation, and mediation to settle disputes and differences.

Iddrisu said this whilst addressing stakeholders at an Inter-party Dialogue Committee (IPDC) meeting, held at Nanton in the Northern Region.

The meeting, organised by the Nanton District Directorate of the NCCE, formed part of the implementation of the second phase of the IPDC meeting under the Preventing and Containing Violent Extremism (PCVE) project being funded by the European Union (EU).

It was attended by the leadership of political parties in the area, youth groups, persons living with disabilities, civil society organisations, Heads of Department amongst other stakeholders in the district.

The meeting was further to strategise on monitoring and reporting threats and vulnerabilities to violent extremism, as well as ways to detect youth radicalisation and other signs of recruitment into extremist groups.

It was also focused on the 2024 elections considering other critical issues such as money in elections/vote buying, misinformation/disinformation (fake news), religious and ethnic tolerance, among others.

Michael Asare, Nanton District Director of the Electoral Commission (EC) underscored the need for political parties to prioritise deploying effective and competent agents in the elections to avoid doubts and ensure fairness.

He explained that the EC could not rig the elections in favour of any political party, adding all stakeholders must be actively involved in the processes to encourage inclusivity and transparency.

Inusah Iddrisu, Principal Public Education Officer and Investigator at the Northern Regional Office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), spoke on the need for communities to adopt mediation and resolution as the means to amicably settle disputes.

He called on the public to demonstrate their active citizenship responsibility by reporting suspected cases of extremist activities to help protect the country.

Participants at the meeting commended NCCE and partners for the engagement and pledged to play their part to promote peace and stability.