The Youth Ministry of the Lighthouse (Central) Assembly of God Church in Kumasi has called for fair play and responsible conduct by all Ghanaians to ensure the success of the upcoming general polls.

They condemned the violence during the biometric voter registration, the continued polarization and intolerance, and said these must end.

A statement read by the Reverend Joseph Appiah, an Associate Pastor of the Church, said lessons must be learnt from the bitter experience of other African countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone and La Cote D’Ivoire to avoid pitfalls.

This was after hundreds of youth from the various branches of the church had gone on a two-and-a-half hour peace walk along some principal streets in Kumasi.

They held placards carrying messages such as “Peace is more precious than electoral victory”, “Peace, and not shattered lives”, “Peace today, peace tomorrow, peace forever”, “Say yes to peace, and no to violence”, and “War is expensive, peace is priceless.”

The statement said “we pride ourselves as a nation after God’s own heart, this is truism but we should know that we are not more righteous than the countries that have suffered the ravages of political and ethnic violence.”

It therefore reminded the political parties to focus their electioneering campaigns on issues that affect the ordinary people and not on insults and vilification.

The media should also be objective, balanced and fair in their news reports. They must do away with unnecessary sensationalism likely to have far-reaching repercussions on the nation’s peace.

It also called on the security agencies to be professional and to deal decisively with individuals and groups out there to undermine the electoral process.

The Electoral Commission (EC) on its part must do everything to create level political playing field to make the outcome of the December polls credible and acceptable to all the parties.

The statement called on religious bodies to continue praying for peace, unity and the tranquility of the nation.

“Religious leaders should preach tolerance and peaceful co-existence and desist from using the pulpit to engage in partisan politics.”**